here's my take. the "standard" way of doing it, in the US and much of the world, is to get married. once you have decided that you are commiting to a relationship, you get married.
now, you don't have to. no good reason to. but I think that most of the situations where people don't get married strike me like wearing a monicle or using a walking stick - you are going out of your way to stick out.
society, and the law, in the US are built around an assumption that couples that decide to stay together and live together for life will be married. not being married creates a burden, however minor, on you - you spend way too much time and effort dealing with that bullshit.
the assumption is that, when you get married, you will have kids, or, more accuratly, the assumption is that when a man and a woman form a lifelong relationship, they will have kids. it is a lot simpler to deal with the legal and administrative issues that surround kids if you are, in fact, married. and, frankly, it will be easier on the kids.
I spend most of the first part of my life, up until maybe 30, thinking that I wouldn't get married. then, when I met my wife, I realized that I wanted to form a lifelong partership with her, and getting married was the simplist way of doing so.
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