Some parents choose to live together without getting married.
When parents who aren’t married stop living together, they don't have to get a divorce because there is no marriage to end. But they do need to decide how to continue caring for their children and how they will divide their property.
The laws about how parents will make major decisions about their children’s lives are the same as they are for married parents. The law talks about these issues as “parental rights and responsibilities.” The court can help unmarried parents resolve these issues – similar to how it works in a divorce.
One major difference is that a Vermont Family Division (court) will not deal with dividing the property and debts of the parents if they are unmarried. The parents need to figure that out on their own.