Mediate Michigan

The path to adulthood used to be clear — love, marriage, baby carriage — and no one embodied that more than America’s working class. But today, for those with only a high school education, that order no longer holds; in fact, a new study suggests that marriage is foundering in Middle America.

Andrew Felices, 26, and Mellissa Giles, 27, are this new face of the American family. They’ve been living together since before their son, A.J., was born. He’s 2 1/2 now, and he shrieks gleefully as he sprawls on the basement floor with dad, building a train track. The couple bought a cozy condo in Frederick, Md., last summer. A home, a child — but neither is in any rush to tie the knot.

“We’re still young,” Mellissa says. We’re enjoying the time as it is.”

What’s important, says Andrew, is “having your life the way you want it, your lifestyle in place. Getting married is really the cherry on top.”

Andrew and Mellissa are part of a huge shift. A new study by the National Marriage Project finds 44 percent of those with high school diplomas but no college degrees now have children without being married. That’s more than triple what it was in the 1970s. And we’re not talking teen mothers; half of those nonmarital births were to couples living together.

via Unmarried With Kids: A Shift In The Working Class : NPR.