BigBallinStalin wrote:Dukasaur wrote:Simply becoming married to someone you're already living with should not upset anyone.
Since you seem to have insight into the subjective valuation of many people, please explain how your statement is true.
I didn't realize this thread was going to turn political. Like I said, I thought it was going to be a lighthearted romp, and I wouldn't have bothered posting if I knew that I was entering a political arena. It brought to mind stuff like those embarrassing moments in university, when you take a little too much PCP, and you wake up two days later with some postmenopausal biker bitch that has more facial hair than you do, and next thing you know your friends are there with cameras laughing at you and taking pictures and yelling "throw the bouquet!"
But since I'm here, I may as well answer your question. I live in the Province of Ontario, where under the Family Law Reform Act of 1981 all legal distinctions between "legal" and "common law" marriage were abolished. If you're living with someone common law for six months or more, your rights and obligations are exactly identical as if you had the walk down the aisle and the whole ball of wax. This is the legal environment I've lived in almost all of my adult life, and so naturally it's what I think of as normal.
But I realize that there are many jurisdictions around the world where differences between formal and common law marriage are preserved. If you live in one of those, and especially if formal marriage burdens you with responsibilities that common law marriage doesn't, then I can certainly see that you would be irritated about unexpectedly finding yourself legally married.