To me, both marriage and having children seem essentially pointless. Before you object, consider that in (US) society today, far fewer younger people are getting married or having children. Time ran an article about the latter recently: http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2148636,00.html
So clearly I am not alone in this assessment.
Here's why I think both are pointless:
Marriage: From a man's point of view, why get married? If you are the breadwinner, it puts you in a financially disadvantageous situation. It prevents you from being able to date whomever you wish. If you are in love with a woman enough to want to be exclusive with her, you should not require a signed a legal contract with certificate to declare it. And I've seen far too many (including on this forum) instances of women having the provider guy, while sleeping with the sexually preferred guy. It's just too much for me ... not only are you paying for her stuff, but she's sleeping around on you too. Now I get that not all women do this, and that men do it too, but I'm speaking from a man's POV.
Children: Kind of went over this on my other thread in the intimacy forum. I actually like kids. However, they are enormously demanding, and it's not clear why you would want to take on these demands willingly. Why not have your money, time, energy, fruits of labor, choices, space, etc. to yourself?