While adults are continuing to couple up after the age of 50, remarrying is less common than before. We are living longer, and the divorce rate has doubled since the 1990s, but when it comes to being with new partners, the form that relationship takes has shifted. Living together is more often replacing remarriage after divorce or widowhood, says Susan L. Brown, a sociologist at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, in this article in the New York Times.
Older adults are finding new love, support and companionship to alleviate loneliness, but for many women are wary of soon becoming a full-time caregiver when pairing up with someone later in life and are instead fulfilling their need for connection and socializing through friends and family.
Also growing in numbers are the number of couples choosing to live apart together. That is maintaining a relationship without sharing (and having no plans to share) a home. This in part helps to lessen the pressure and likelihood of being put into the role of caregiver in the coming years.
For more on where and what demographics in particular are part of this wave of living apart together couples, and anecdotes from adults on the choices they’re making with their later in life relationships, learn more here. The article also includes advice on how to navigate these conversations with a new partner.
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