Forty years ago our parents had to get married if they wanted to have sex and children. Those who flouted the convention were either careless or brave.
Today, nearly half of the children born in New Zealand are born outside marriage. At any one time, though, only about 12 per cent of them live with cohabiting parents (although a quarter live with just one parent). It seems that couples marry after they have had children, rather than before.
Jan Pryor is an associate professor and director of Victoria University’s Roy McKenzie Centre for the Study of Families.
Read Jan Prior’s opinion piece in DomPost