What Makes Marriage So Great?

Rachael Pace, Author

Rachael Pace

Expertise: Mental health, Parenting

Rachael Pace inspires with motivational articles on loving partnerships. She encourages making room for love and facing challenges together.

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Updated: 21 Feb, 2023

Table of Contents

Anchors you in companionship Marriage anchors you in a shared life, helping both partners feel seen, heard, and closer when you regularly check in and express appreciation.
Simplifies daily life The commitment creates clear boundaries and routines, so you can protect time for each other and build trust through small, consistent acts.
Gives steady safety The structure can shield you from gossip and fuel resilience, inviting you to be vulnerable and grow closer through honest, compassionate conversations.

So what does make marriage so great? Especially, with all the divorce, messy break-ups, and heartbreaks going around. It’s an interesting question.

Ask anyone who is head over heels in love with someone, and you will get an answer. It’s going to be different for each one though, so it gets confusing looking at things from outside the box.

But if someone asks an honest question, it’s best to give an honest answer. The question is rhetorical, condescending even. So in defense of the millions of married people out there, including myself, I would like to give my two cents on the issue, just so these new-age philosophy progressive thinkers won’t think that we are complete idiots.

It’s legally convenient

You don’t need a lavish wedding to make a family.

Making children today is done the same way it always has been since the beginning of time. Copulate. So why do couples and their families spend a lot of money just for marriage?

Because it’s a celebration, they are happy. The same reason fans celebrate the Cubs winning the pennant again after 108 years.

The couple is overjoyed and they want to share the moment with their friends and family in more significant ways than just posting a video on Facebook.

But the wedding celebration is just that, a party.

After the bachelor’s party, the main event, and the honeymoon, it’s over. That’s not what marriage is about, it’s about a legally binding contract.

Under most countries civil code, marriages bind the couple as one financial entity. It makes it easier to claim insurance, buy a house, and generally vouch for each other as a guarantor. It is also easier for children to get a passport when they are carrying the same surname as their parents.

So what makes marriage so great?

It is great and especially useful when only one of the couple makes money. In case you’re not aware, Banks are curious to know where you got your money if are jobless and open an account. It’s a money laundering thing, read about it.

If both couples make money, the combined income makes it easier to get loans. No loan officer will ask a married couple why they want to get a home mortgage and pay for it together.

There are tax benefits too, it depends on what country you live in, but there should be a few incentives, especially if you live in a first world country.

By the way, the insurance thing is very important, but that’s one benefit that I hope we married people never get to use.

It prevents gossip

Condescending people love to gossip, including snotty ones who laugh at traditional customs like marriages. But when a married couple lives together, have sex a lot, and eventually, have kids, those folks who have nothing better to do with their lives than talk about others will not find any gossip material.

You know the type, the ones always looking for fault in others and then talk about it all over town. The ones who feel they are superior to others just because they do things differently. You know like people who don’t believe in marriages and laugh at them when they fail.

Nobody gets married to avoid gossip. It’s just a convenient benefit that comes with it. It prevents those funny folks talking about a couple living together under one roof and imagining all sorts of things behind closed doors.

So what makes marriage so great? It keeps things in perspective.

That way gossip mongers find someone else to victimize.

Children won’t get confused

Children won't get confused

You may believe that single parents are unsung heroes. They are, and we married people admire them too. But other children may not look at it that way. Bullies always look for something different in other kids and when they do, they use it as a weapon.

If you think this is an immature way of thinking, well they are kids. They are supposed to be immature.

If you think you can protect every child in school against bullies, then go ahead and do it, the government has been trying to figure out a solution to that problem for generations.

So back to our topic, marriage is great because it makes their children “normal.” They have a daddy, a mommy, and a sibling or two. They won’t be ashamed about their family with other kids.

You have a valid excuse to avoid crazy things

There are times when your boss will have to ask you to do overtime for a month straight because of an important project that would get them, not you, promoted.

There are also times when a friend brings over his girlfriend to his house and wants to test out a new long-lasting pill.

There is also that time when your old high school buddy that you haven’t heard from in a while is asking to borrow money to pay off his bookie.

You can say no, then again, you can always say no without being married, but they will still bother you because they think you have nothing else better to do. That may or may not be true, but married people have an excuse to refuse with class.

Being married gives you an option, you can still say yes and go crazy. Good luck and hopefully you don’t regret it.

So yeah, what makes marriage so great? It’s not really a big deal when compared to winning the Olympics. It’s not something that will guarantee financial security even if you did marry into a rich family.

So what does make it great? Does it help overcome loneliness? Does it guarantee a partner for life? No, it doesn’t.

It’s great because it simplifies things

Just like mobile phones are great. It prevents a lot of headaches when you decide to grow up and be responsible for someone else, especially your own children.

It’s great because it creates an order. It flows with the natural symmetry of life’s expectations.

Only a reckless person would complicate something that doesn’t need to be. If something went wrong with a particular marriage, it’s never the fault of a single piece of paper. However, that single piece of paper can protect you from a lot of life’s curve balls.

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Rachael Pace Author

Rachael Pace is a noted relationship writer associated with Marriage.com. She provides inspiration, support, and empowerment in the form of motivational articles and essays. Rachael enjoys studying the evolution of loving partnerships... Read more and is passionate about writing on them. She believes that everyone should make room for love in their lives and encourages couples to work on overcoming their challenges together. Read less