Top 10 Reasons Men Won't Get Married

Young men want to get married. They really do. They want a wife, children and the house with the picket fence. They just don't want it right now. Instead, men ages 25 to 33 prefer to have fun, unencumbered by commitment and responsibility.

That's the word from a new study called "The State of Our Unions" that concludes, young, educated, professional men don't want to commit to marriage. They place great value in the institution of marriage, but the single life beckons. Since today's men--unlike their fathers and grandfathers--don't have pressure from church, employers or society to get married, they aren't. The thinking used to be that marriage and childen were a large part of a man's success and proof of his stability, not to mention manhood. Employers practically insisted on marital bliss and a raft of kids. That kind of employee was dependable.There was also a lot of peer pressure and endless clamoring from family to start producing offspring. Marriage was a foregone conclusion.

Society has done a 180 turn about. There is no pressure now. Even a child born out of wedlock is not enough impetus to marry. Men are accepted on their own merit, without proving they are good family men. They often opt for further or post grad education. Many wish to travel, see the world, or at least experience life, until they decide if marriage is even right for them.

The researchers interviewed 60 heterosexual men in Chicago, parts of New Jersey, Washington, D.C. and Houston. For the most part they were employed full-time and earned between $21,000 to $35,000 annually. Most had either attended some college or graduated. None of them were married, although three of the men were fathers.

The top 10 reasons young men don't want to get married now:

1. They can have casual sex without marriage, something that is far more common today and accepted than in generations past.

2. By living with a girlfriend, they can enjoy all the benefits of a wife without having to say, "I do." This is a no-risk way to test the idea of marriage.

3. Men want to avoid the financial risks of divorce. What better way to do that than to not get married in the first place?

4. Since they don't have to worry about their biological clocks, men say they want to wait until they are older to have children. They really do not want to be pressured into marriage by a woman whose primary goal is to have kids.

5. Their greatest fear is that marriage will require too many changes, compromises and responsibilities. After all, it's a lot more fun to play poker with the boys all night long.

6. Men are romantics at heart. They believe in a soul mate, and they're willing to wait for her. What is a soul mate? Men define her as someone who accepts them just the way they are and does not want to change them. These men don't want to settle for second-best.

7. There are very few social pressures to marry. While their dads were pressured by religion, employers or society to settle down and say "I do," men today are free from that.

8. Men are reluctant to marry a woman who already has children, primarily to avoid competition and conflict with the children's biological father.

9. They want to become a homeowner before they become a husband. Being established financially is an important goal many men want to achieve before they marry.

10. Men want to enjoy the single life as long as possible, especially as they become accustomed to having their own space and routines and not being responsible to anyone else.