{"id":8688,"date":"2013-07-11T15:25:41","date_gmt":"2013-07-11T15:25:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/?p=8688"},"modified":"2013-07-12T09:09:16","modified_gmt":"2013-07-12T09:09:16","slug":"love-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/","title":{"rendered":"Love Marriage?"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3>Ok, shocking news klaxon: I was born out of wedlock. *Tumbleweed blows through blog*&#8230;.. And, so was my eldest child. *Collective gasp of precisely nobody*.<\/h3>\r\n<p class=\"   \">I\u2019m not having some kind of over sharing crisis, I\u2019m just thinking about the report the Office of National Statistics revealed, stating that the number of babies born to unmarried mothers rose to 47.5 per cent in 2012. By 2016, the ONS predicts, the majority of babies born in the UK will be to unwed mothers.<\/p>\r\nThe Prime Minister is considering new legislation designed to make marriage more attractive to couples by introducing tax breaks worth \u00a3150 by the end of the year.\r\n\r\nWell excuse me if I don\u2019t go booking my holiday to Barbados just yet.\r\n\r\nConservative MP and former Children\u2019s Minister Tim Loughton is quoted in the Daily Telegraph as saying that people who are not married, \u201cdrift in and out of relationships very easily.\u201d\r\n<h3>Is this really true?<\/h3>\r\nKate Figes\u2019 wonderful book <i>Couples<\/i> reminds us that it was not until the rise of the romantic novel and romanticism in the late 18th century that the idea of marriage as we now know it became commonplace. Figes explains how the post-Second World War years in particular, \u201cfostered a new idealism around the nuclear family.\u201d Before this, cohabiting was commonplace, and couples rarely had time alone together; the houses of the rich were full of servants and those of the poor had whole families crowded into one room.\r\n\r\nThe extreme commercialization of marriage today makes me immediately suspicious of it as it seems to have no real meaning. The diamond engagement ring was an invention of the De Beers marketing department. Queen Victoria started the fashion of marrying in white. The average wedding costs around \u00a325,000. We are suckers for the commercial trappings of coupledom but often unprepared for the hard graft of family life.\r\n\r\nDespite the fact that the social conformity of marriage makes me bristle, guess what? I\u2019m about to celebrate my 10th wedding anniversary this summer. My husband and I didn\u2019t have cakes or speeches, I didn\u2019t wear white, and my dad didn\u2019t walk me down an aisle as if it was his right to \u2018give me away\u2019. We did what felt meaningful to us which involved a garden, a hot day, and our community of friends. And I guess that\u2019s the point. I don\u2019t believe a Government tax directive will encourage people to get married and have children \u2018in wedlock\u2019 thereby creating some sort of social utopia. Children are not loved less because their parents did not conform to a marketing plan.\r\n<h3>It\u2019s an interesting time for the ol\u2019 institutionalized ball and chain tradition. Is it about to undergo a rebirth or disappear forever? What do you think?<\/h3>\r\n<em>Image Sources : Wiki Commons<\/em>\r\n\r\n&nbsp;\r\n\r\n&nbsp;","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ok, shocking news klaxon: I was born out of wedlock. *Tumbleweed blows through blog*&#8230;.. And, so was my eldest child. *Collective gasp of precisely nobody*.","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8691,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3506],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-great-family-life-tips","category-special-occasions-for-families"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\r\n<title>Love Marriage? - KidStart Magazine<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Love Marriage? - KidStart Magazine\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ok, shocking news klaxon: I was born out of wedlock. *Tumbleweed blows through blog*..... And, so was my eldest child. *Collective gasp of precisely nobody*.\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"KidStart Magazine\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-11T15:25:41+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-07-12T09:09:16+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"704\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"400\" \/>\r\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sara Bran\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sara Bran\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/\",\"name\":\"Love Marriage? - KidStart Magazine\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-11T15:25:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-07-12T09:09:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbe4da9fc671ca188236556c0aa2a31\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg\",\"width\":704,\"height\":400},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Love Marriage?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"KidStart Magazine\",\"description\":\"KidStart - a little help along the way\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbe4da9fc671ca188236556c0aa2a31\",\"name\":\"Sara Bran\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/efc9f179c5d2fc6710c68ab971bb826d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/efc9f179c5d2fc6710c68ab971bb826d?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Sara Bran\"},\"description\":\"Sara Bran is a writer, blogger, social media consultant and mother of two daughters living in London. She has an unbelievable tolerance to caffeine and an extreme aversion to brass sections.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/author\/sara\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Love Marriage? - KidStart Magazine","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Love Marriage? - KidStart Magazine","og_description":"Ok, shocking news klaxon: I was born out of wedlock. *Tumbleweed blows through blog*..... And, so was my eldest child. *Collective gasp of precisely nobody*.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/","og_site_name":"KidStart Magazine","article_published_time":"2013-07-11T15:25:41+00:00","article_modified_time":"2013-07-12T09:09:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":704,"height":400,"url":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sara Bran","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sara Bran","Estimated reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/","url":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/","name":"Love Marriage? - KidStart Magazine","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-11T15:25:41+00:00","dateModified":"2013-07-12T09:09:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbe4da9fc671ca188236556c0aa2a31"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/RINGS1.jpg","width":704,"height":400},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/love-marriage\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Love Marriage?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/","name":"KidStart Magazine","description":"KidStart - a little help along the way","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/ebbe4da9fc671ca188236556c0aa2a31","name":"Sara Bran","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/efc9f179c5d2fc6710c68ab971bb826d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/efc9f179c5d2fc6710c68ab971bb826d?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Sara Bran"},"description":"Sara Bran is a writer, blogger, social media consultant and mother of two daughters living in London. She has an unbelievable tolerance to caffeine and an extreme aversion to brass sections.","url":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/author\/sara\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8688\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8691"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidstart.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}