Another thing that has got me thinking is looking at my family. Parents, grandparents, aunty's, uncles have all done it the "proper" way, got married had the kids and stayed with eachother even though all of them are at best indifferent with eachother and at worst hate eachother, honestly have no clue how my parents got together in the first place let alone have survived three decades together, they both genuinely dispise the sight of the other. There's not a single divorce in my immediate family and I genuinely believe we're a worse off family for it.
I also see similar examples of 'settling' or trying to with my friends, some have even admited they don't truly love their partner and a lot act no different to standard mates around each other in public. I feel there's so much society pressure these days that it's seen as socially unacceptable to be single above around 25 and to not have kids soon after.
That's not to say that this is the case with the majority of couples, ofcourse they'll be many who are madly in love and happy and that's brilliant, but I guess the point I'm trying to say is I feel there's so many couples that are together and not in love, and for me I'd genuinely prefer a lifetime alone than to be in that situation.