Marriage for me, is generally not about making a commitment to somebody. If I wanted to make a commitment to somebody who I was in a relationship with, I shouldn't need to have to announce it legally for it to be valid. I agree with you on this.
However, when I have decided that I want to commit myself to one person, and have a family with this person and spend the rest of my life with them etcetera, marrying them would make things more agreeable for me because 1) after marriage I would choose to take on the same surname as my husband and consequently the same name as my children and 2) legally, it would make things so much simpler - not just that we would all share the same family name but legally, being husband and wife, we would be able to conveniently share bank accounts, access each other's information and accounts regarding healthcare, finances, whatever you do together.
Marriage may be seen as a redundant procession that is only performed because of tradition but I still think it plays a large role in society, mainly for legal reasons it's a lot less complicated for married couples to do things together - sharing accounts like I said, adopting children, claiming financial benefits, etc.
Also, what you said about child support and stuff - I think the law has adjusted itself to modern societal values. It is true gender roles are often being reversed but it is still often the case that following a divorce the mother will still be the primary caregiver of the children and so this is why in most cases it is she who will receive child support. Otherwise, in most divorces I've seen occur in my life, the parents are granted equal custody and the responsibility, emotionally and financially, is usually divided entirely equally. In the event that the father would become the primary caregiver following divorce, I don't see any law that would prevent the mother from having to pay child support to the father. I think it's pretty equal, and pretty adapted to modern society.
I don't think marriage is a redundant or silly tradition. I still think there are so many reasons why it is still relevant to many of our lives today.
That being said, I think sometimes people marry for the wrong reasons and see marriage as something totally different from what it should be. I believe that couples don't have to be married in order to have children, in fact the traditional family module has pretty much completely been dissolved. But for me, marriage still seems very relevant to relationships and families.
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