Getting the Milk for Free

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday about, among other things, living together before marriage. I'm not naive by any stretch of the imagination. I know that females are practically bred to seek out marriage and family and boys are taught to avoid it like the plague. He made an interesting point that he heard "Don't get married" far more often than he heard "Don't do drugs". That comment stung. I mean what are we being taught is important and what isn't? Why do guys tend to look at marriage as giving up stuff while females view it as gaining? Why do guys look at it as "why the rush?" and females see it as "why the wait?"

I understand that this is not characteristic of all males but i would say that this is true of the VAST majority of the population... But WHY? He made a comment that if things are going good, why change something and risk ruining it. I guess I feel that once you have chosen to give a high level of commitment to someone and determined that this is the person you plan to be with, there's really no need to wait. I think that a lot of guys don't realize that women tend to take a lot of slack for shacking up. I mean look at the saying "why would he buy the cow if he gets the milk for free?" Trust me I have MANY issues with that one (esp the cow part) but that right there says a lot about the value that society has placed on the woman. I mean we too are sexual beings... are we not getting a little free milk too? Has anyone EVER said that to a guy? Why should she buy the hen when she's getting the eggs for free?" I'm willing to bet that the answer is no. And then that brings up another issue... Let's say we stop giving away the milk... is there not another heifer out there that's more than willing to have her udder fiddled with?

I think that people (yes men and women) need to stop and look around at the people they know and the people they've come across and then look at the person you're with. If you look at that person and think, you know maybe there's someone else out there, then by all means WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT WAIT. But if you look at that person and realize that this is who you have travelled a lifetime to find... then make it official.

(Disclaimer: These are only my thoughts, it is in no way an attempt to call any individual into action. This is just my little old opinion!)