Why do couples live happily together for years and years then tie the knot and split up?

Makes no sense. What is it about the little marriage certificate and legalization of your love that causes people to split?Why do couples live happily together for years and years then tie the knot and split up?
This is an interesting analysis on co-habitation and later divorce:


http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/07/24/cd鈥?/a>





It says: ';Couples who live together before marriage may be the type of people who are ';more likely to consider divorce,';





It's not that the experience of living together that causes divorce, but just the type of people who do it may be more likely to divorce.Why do couples live happily together for years and years then tie the knot and split up?
Nothing little about it, pal.





Marriage changes your identity. When you live together, you know that if your partner misbehaves, you have options. They know that too. Those options narrow to nothing when you're married. Breaking up after marriage means having the state government deciding who gets to drive off with your stuff! It means attorneys and alimony payments and possibly years of litigation if things go wrong.





Plus, a spouse suddenly becomes the ONE you forsook all others for, and no one is perfect, and when that ONE person makes a mistake or neglects you or is rude to you, you feel like a complete idiot for elevating them to be the one and only person to satisfy you forever.





Fights get much angrier when the level of expectation rises so high.





Now, don't even start on the introduction of children to a happy marriage. I have yet to see the marriage that survives the stork.





There ya go, question answered, mission accomplished. I may log off early tonight.
I think its because they've become a habit. They probably liked each other %26amp; began living together as a matter of convenience. I suspect that eventually one says to the other - Marry me or else!





When they finally marry, I think many of them realize that they don't really love each other %26amp; committing to each other was a mistake.





My philosophy has always been: If you love someone enough to live with them, then get married.





If you don't love someone %26amp; its only like -don't live together! You're wasting your life when you could be out there finding the love of your life!
You really can't generalize. Maybe they outlived their relationships lifespan. Maybe one person started expecting more of the other person. ( such as, ';now we are married, you should stop hanging with the guys so much';)





The marriage certificate does not cause the split, the people do. Many more people split after shacking up, we just don't have a way of keeping stats on them.
idk dey jus get tired i guess n umm answer my question plzz
no matter what anyone says that lil sheet of paper changes things...