eli5: When you are asked to give your relationship status, why are the options all related to marriage? (Single, married, divorced, widowed etc.) Surely the one of the most common answers would in ‘in a relationship’ but not married.
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They want to know who is your next of kin. You can be the most devoted boyfriend in the history of the world, but your girlfriend’s mom will still be the one making her medical decisions and choosing her coffin.
It’s about the legal definition. In most jurisdictions there’s no legal difference between “Single” or “In an unmarried relationship”, while there are differences between divorced vs. widowed.
Because no one cares about your relationships, they are asking about your legal ties to another person. Marriage, or even common law living arrangements, has impacts on things like taxes, benefits, etc. Divorce and widow also carry legal concerns that a breakup doesn’t.
On the rare case it’s actually asking about your love life, like say your facebook profile, there’s obviously in a relationship is an option.
An additional point related to the legal status, it’s all about a paper trail as well. It keeps random schmucks from claiming they are your SO and therefore make decisions for you, or are entitled to some of your property.
I don’t know the exact legal connections for each, but as single, you share nothing, married shares everything, divorced shares according to the divorce agreement, and widowed owns what belonged to their deceased spouse, but could marry and share with someone else.
It’s completely based on your legal status. There is no legal status for “in a relationship”
There’s not any legal definition for what constitutes a relationship when not married. And thus there is no need to distinguish between unmarried truly single, and unmarried but in a relationship.
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