I had a relationship coaching session last week with a young couple in their 20s whose circumstances are rather unique. He’s active-duty military and thus rarely home, and she’s an emergency dispatcher holding down the fort. They’re not married but merely living together — because, they said, it was the convenient thing to do at the time. Unsurprisingly, things aren’t working out so well now.

There was a time when living with one’s boyfriend or girlfriend out of “convenience” would have sounded silly. But over the past 25 years, cohabiting has risen exponentially. Ironically, millennials view cohabitation as a sign of commitment, something with which the couple should feel proud, as if announcing you’re moving in with your boyfriend or girlfriend is something to celebrate. But what is it celebrating? That someone has promised to share a bed with you, along with the rent, for only as long he or she feels compelled to do so? And then what?