Date: Sunday March 15th 2015

An International Debate was conducted on the Topic of "If a couple moves in together before marriage, will that help their relationship long term?"

Participants (from 11 countries):

Team A: Sandeep, Kadirvelu, Maria, Selly, Johny, Judie, Oscar, Fernando

Team B: Kamal, Rick

Team C: Alina, Lucasta, Mittal, Sarsoura

Team A, which was for it, had the following summary statements: Spending time with someone, in their daily routine, allows you to know them better, and find out whether or not the relationship would work long term.

Also Team A stated that if people live separately, and date, they will not know the true life of the other, for example when friends or family come over. There was also the concern that if people live separately, there is more temptation for cheating on each other.

Team B, which was against it, had the following summary statements: "absence makes the heart grow fonder" meaning that sometimes people need their space, and in some cases, can appreciate each other more this way. Also when people are not living together, the trust factor becomes that much more important, which is critical to a long term relationship. In the case of Team B, Kamal stated that in his view, marriage is the end goal of a relationship. Most of the people on Team A felt that Marriage in the traditional sense, is an option, but not always the end goal, that being in a happy and loving relationship is the most important.

Team C concluded they felt that Team A did the best job presenting their position, and therefore Team A won the debate

Below is the link to listen to our chat

If a couple moves in together before marriage, will that help their relationship long term? - Voice chat Recording