r/marriagefree

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How important is marriage for you?

I don’t have anyone in my life and I don’t want to get married, because I can see everyone cheats or develop feelings for some other person. So I don’t want to feel too attached to someone that when that person actually cheats I can’t bear that.

How should I convince my parents for not marrying?

Do people stopped believing in true love or what? What is your reason for staying unmarried af

Lately, I get the impression that a lot of men have a negative attitude toward serious relationships, commitments, etc. Is this just a matter of the people I surround myself with, or is it a broader issue? And what might be causing it? I’d love to hear men’s opinions and understand your point of view #relationships #romance

Why do people thing that marriage is transactional? Do you only need a husband for money and a wife for household help? Why is this concept so normalized? What is the purpose of that? Isn't marriage supposed to be two people navigating through life together and making it easier? Loving each other through the worst and still sticking together even through bad times. Also why do guys get pissed if a woman wants to work, what's wrong with that? Don't you want your wife to be successful? Educated? Employed? Also why is it so hard for men to accept that marriage isn't a transaction it's not a contract to just share responsibilities it's much more. Imo love is what keeps a marriage successful. What is a marriage without love? Why do you need to be with someone if you don't even love them? Might sound unrealistic but thats something I needed to vent out. Why make it all so complicated? Why can't we both work, pay the bills, and still cook together, raise kids together, and have a perfect balance. P.s nothing wrong with stay at home moms they're the best. I'm just talking about my opinion. Also why is this concept considered a white washed concept because in my surroundings it's the norm.

I’ve been thinking about this lately.

With dating apps offering endless options and social media shaping expectations, it feels like long-term commitment is becoming less attractive for many people.

Marriage used to represent stability and partnership. Now it sometimes seems viewed as a restriction or unnecessary risk.

Do you think modern dating culture is encouraging short-term experiences over long-term commitment?

Or are people just becoming more selective than previous generations?

Genuinely curious about your perspective.

For context, I'm a 23-year-old male working a stable job in Dubai 🇦🇪, earning enough to comfortably support a family back in India. My cousin is getting married next year, and now everyone around me has started doing that thing ,you know, the "you're next" comments. (Apparently it's not just for girls anymore)

My mom has already started looking for brides in our hometown, and honestly, I don't know how to feel about it.

Here's where I stand:

I'm just not interested in marriage right now, and I'm trying to figure out if that's a reasonable position or if I'm missing something.

My reasoning:

Right now, I love the freedom this job gives me. If I don't like it tomorrow, I can walk away. The moment I have a wife and kids depending on me, that freedom disappears I'll have to keep working no matter what.

I look at the people around me who are getting married and I think...what have they actually achieved beyond having children? They seem happy, I guess, but I can't tell if it's genuine or just what they've settled into.

The two main "benefits" of marriage I can think of are sex (available without marriage) and children (which is an enormous responsibility I'm not sure I want).

I'm not against the idea of love marriage, but I'm simply not in love with anyone right now, so that's off the table.

I'm not trying to be cynical , I genuinely want to understand what I might be overlooking. Is there more to marriage that I'm not seeing?

How do I navigate this situation?

I am in my late 20s and I have come to the realization that marriage might not be for me.

Some background: I am pursuing a career that is very fulfilling for me, and I can say that it has been a dream for me to be in this position when I was younger. I have hobbies and relationships that bring joy to my life. In fact, at times I feel like the only constraint for pursuing my interests is time.

I have had a few major relationships in my 20s, but they have been unfulfilling despite the fact that I have cared deeply for those women. I have realized that I enjoy meeting someone new, getting to know them and having fun, but anything beyond that is suffocating for me. Especially, I have noticed that after a few months, my presence, time, and effort somehow are taken for granted and more is required. In one of these relationships, which was in my early 20s, I was fully invested in this girl. We did long distance for a while, and that put a lot of strain in my life and relationships with my friends and family. By the end of the relationship I had lost almost everything that brought joy to my life, things that defined me as a man, and was depressed for a while. I tried being a relationship one more time and I noticed similar patterns. The second time it was easier because I was starting to become more aware of these things, but it wasn't until I spent about a year alone, that I was able to process everything and understand what went wrong.

Ultimately, I have realized that single life brings me a level of peace that I just can't have in a long term relationship. I enjoy waking up on a Saturday, after a long week of work, having no commitments or plans outside of doing what makes me happy and brings me peace. When in a relationship I always felt like I had an obligation to do things that made my woman happy, and ended up neglecting myself. Even when going on vacations, as a man I felt like it was my duty to make my woman happy. Recently, I traveled abroad alone, and I can say it was the most enjoyable vacation I have had in my life. Up to this point it has been fairly straightforward, and it was easier to accept the fact that I am not the type of guy who wants to spend the rest of my life with a woman.

However, I want to become a father, but bringing a child in this world when I know that I am probably not going to be with their mother for the rest of my life feels wrong. Are there any men who never got married or started a family, who regretted this and why?

After all these years, I finally got the answer to one of the most tough questions whether being single is better or being married and my opinion is that being single is much better and relaxing than being married.
When i was single i used to think being single sucks but now I realise that being single is the best.

You can be at peace all the time and you need not be worried about anything except your own self. Off lately i m losing my peace, getting stressed from all aspects and feel that I do not have my freedom to do things.

I seriously feel going back to being single but it’s too late now. What do you guys feel please share your insights

Just wanted to know if anyone else has been having negative thoughts about marriage lately?

Growing up, marriage often seemed like a beautiful milestone, but the more stories, experiences, and challenges I see around me, the more questions I find myself asking. Whether it's concerns about commitment, compatibility, divorce rates, loss of independence, or simply wondering if it's still the right path for everyone, I'm curious to hear different perspectives.

If you've ever felt uncertain, skeptical, or even afraid of marriage, what shaped those feelings? Have your views changed over time?

Looking for honest opinions and respectful discussions.

The Marriage Benefit Imbalance

I see young couples all the time. It makes me happy that they are content with themselves to be able to add another person into their lives, but at the same time it makes me wonder how many experiences they will miss in life just because one of them gets jealous or because they subconsciously feel guilty for having fun without their partner. 

A lot of people who are single yearn to be in love and find their "soulmate," but I've never understood why. Being single and alone is the most free anyone could be. You can go anywhere and do anything all on your own time. You could party all night long and make new friends who are the opposite sex without having to worry about the trusting approval of your significant other. I can't think of anything more refreshing than being able to live your own life without someone else's opinion or jealousy. 

In saying that, I would like to pull out some statistics that I have researched online. From the writer Elizabeth Gilbert. She says that married women do not live as long as single women; they do not earn as much money; they are not as happy, as well as being more likely to suffer from addiction than single women; they are more likely to commit suicide; and they are even more likely to die of homicide than single women. All in all, married women report themselves in every single way that you can measure sociological data for wellness as being less content with themselves than single women. Conversely, married men, on the other hand. Outperform single men by such a measure that it is perhaps the healthiest thing a man can do is to get a woman to marry him. 

On that note, I will emphasize the "clear" here. The best thing a man can do is to get married to a woman, while the worst thing a woman can do, statistically speaking, is get married to a man. This is shown to happen because of something called a marriage benefit imbalance. Those balances are exactly equal, which means that the percentage of herself that a woman gives to a man she loses and he gains. In simpler words, she is quite literally giving her life to him. 

To shift this essay into a positive perspective, let's dive into the romantic and psychological standpoint of marriage. If marriage is so bad for women, then why do they do it? Before I answer, I want to say that I actually don't know. But my idea is that we need a witness to our lives; there are billions of people on the planet, and when we look at it like that, then what does one life ever really mean? But in a marriage… you are promising to care about everything, the good things, the bad things, the terrible things, the mundane things, all of it. All the time. Everyday. You’re saying, "Your life will not go unnoticed, because I will notice it. Your life will not go unwitnessed because I will be your witness.” - a quote from some movie.

At the end of the day it gives you a life worth living for, and if you’re lucky, you can achieve what some may say is “the greatest purpose in life": a child. One of your own flesh and blood, or one that you opened your doors and arms to.

Hi All, I'm seriously considering how to deal with it. I have noticed that at my age, I can't be lucky enough to meet a man who has wisdom, humor and caring characters, suitable for marriage. Those nice men are either too young or already got married already. Do you have any advice about how to help me stop thinking that I need a husband? Thank you~~~~

What am I feeling and why? SORRY i know this is LONG but i dont know who to turn to! 🙏🏻🙏🏻

I am an INTP- A, and I want to share exactly how I feel about romance and marriage because it's been weighing on me, especially since marriage is an unavoidable future expectation in my family that honestly scares me. Im 22, female, asian muslim and im supposed to by married by 25 apparently. Im scared. Genuinely.

I don’t naturally crave romance and am genuinely happy on my own. Real-life romance or sexual intimacy makes me uncomfortable, cringe, and even a bit scared, and my vaginismus doesnt help at all; I skip kissing scenes in shows and cannot imagine myself being lovey-dovey, saying "I love you," or being physically intimate with a guy. Tbh what even is love? Like on a real note what is it? Can it be defined? When people date are they really in love or just a crush but a strong one? How do you know when youve moved from like to love stage is there certain differences in the steps?

For me, attraction isn't about emotional butterflies or physical desire—male anatomy doesn't appeal to me sexually, and I view things like abs purely as a visual aesthetic. Instead, my feelings are based entirely on logic, alignment, and convenience.

Even when I had a major crush last year on a guy who matched my values and humor perfectly, I realized I was viewing him like a city on a checklist. I wasn't daydreaming about kissing him; I was just evaluating if he practically fit into my life. Like i want him in a manner and enjoyed talking to him so much, he was a perfect template so far. But i never fantasised about kissing or banging him. With any of my crushes. I have previously briefly dated at 15 and got only 1 small peck of kiss but i dont remember how it felt that time. I lost feelings for him, we broke up, He got a new gf, i felt nothing about it and even became cool moots with his gf and him.

Because I don't know how to date and find real-life expressions of romance unnecessary, I know I'll likely end up with an arranged marriage, but I worry about coming across like a cold business deal when talking to potential partners. When guys have shown interest in the past, I've been straightforward, cold, and have blocked them with zero guilt the moment it got to be too much.

If someone tells me they like me, my immediate reaction is distrust and denial because I genuinely don't see myself as romantically lovable. I do enjoy creating realistic romantic scenarios with bots or talking about imaginary men with my best friend, but those are highly conditional and controlled.

In reality, if marriage wasn't a forced expectation and I didn't worry about breaking my parents' hearts, I wouldn't bother looking for a partner at all. I am only open to trying romance because I don't want to end up completely alone, and I secretly hope I can find a rare partner who views marriage and intimacy the exact same practical way I do. i dont want to bang anyone, kissing feels awkward. childbirth? hell no. Just even sentimental words make me wanna go. I just feel broken like this isnt supposed to happen and itl only make my life harder now. I am a bit in denial 😭

Why do i feel like this? Am i on the aorace spectrum?

Hello, first time coming across this sub. I searched a bit and didn't see a post where everyone shared why they do not want to marry or how they view marriage. So I wanted to post and ask if anyone has anything to share.

What are some reasons you don't want to marry? I have many reasons but also "because I don't want to" sums it up best lol.

Men say women are gold diggers and they need marriage and use husbands as ATM. Then why do men even marry? Say NO to marriage, you men are strong & independent, what more woman can add to your life apart from a baby? Why don't you start a 4B movement?