<p>Has anyone else noticed a larger number of couples between ages 18 and 22 getting engaged and/or married? I'll exclude military couples, since they tend to, at least where I live, marry and start families at a rather young age. I'm just finding it pretty ridiculous. I'm only 21, and I have no desire to get married until my late twenties (which seems to be every girl's nightmare these days, but it's definitely not mine!). I'm currently in a relationship, but I don't see any reason to get engaged just yet. I don't even plan toget married until I'm done with my doctorate. Academics, work, and financial stability always come first for me, and I will not sacrifice any of it for marriage. </p>
<p>Anyways, I'm seeing so many Facebook relationship statuses changing from "in a relationship" to "engaged" (and some to even "married") lately. Most of the people I know who have gotten engaged and/or married can't even afford to hold a proper wedding, and instead, they will have a court wedding. It seems to me like it's more of a race to change a Facebook status, garner heaps of attention, or to show off an expensive engagement ring more than anything else. Considering that divorce is so prevalent in this day and age, especially among young couples, it truly does concern me that so many young couples are rushing to the altar. </p>
<p>Most of the couples I know who are currently engaged and/or married are not even done with their undergraduate degree. Yikes! Especially with most of them being in their late teens or early twenties, it's pretty rare for couples to last more than a few years. I even know this one couple who got engaged (and married a few months later) after dating for six months. Six months! How is it possible to really know someone in that little amount of time? It actually saddens me. I know it's not my business to decide whether or not these couples should get married or not, but I wish others could simply take their time with their relationships, enjoy being young, and just have fun instead of finding any little reason they can to buckle down. I can't help but think, "Sure, you may love him/her now, but what about a few years from now?" I may sound silly, but why can't others just stop and enjoy the smell of roses for once?</p>
<p>i no its crazy my cousin n cousin had a kid when they were like 16 now there married but its weired they still say single on the government forms likes its not official?</p>
<p>I think having long engagements is ridiculous. People then act like the “engagement” is the actual dating period and have it go on for 3+ years. Or, more specifically for < 22 year olds, use the engagement to say “we’ll get married when we graduate but for right now we’re engaged”. Yeah if you need to slap on an engagement ring onto a guy or gal to keep him/her loyal for 4 years then your relationship is screwed from the start.</p>
<p>I was married at 23 and I’m just finishing up my AA at 29, still plenty of school ahead of me too. </p>
<p>I had only met my husband 4 times in person before our wedding, we met online and mostly talked online. Only knew each other for 4 months before the wedding. It’s been almost 7 years now and everything is still fine. We fight, but, we fight constructively, if that makes any sense. </p>
<p>If you know someone very well, have similar life goals, respect for each others interests and so forth, then you can probably handle marriage a lot younger than others may be able to. </p>
<p>I can handle school, marriage and an 8 month old. It’s all about scheduling… lol</p>
<p>If anything, it’s made me a lot happier going to class. Before I was always wondering when my life would begin and I hated ‘wasting’ time in class that could be spent meeting guys or working to make some money. It was always a countdown to when I would finally be out of school. It’s not like that at all anymore. I don’t even care what year I’m finishing. </p>
<p>But, everyone is different. For me, having my family already started takes the pressure off to rush through school. For others, it may remove the incentive to continue with their education.</p>
<p>I can tell you my online personality is vastly different from my real life personality. Heck, online I could support dozens of personalities. And I could easily fool anyone to think otherwise if I only met them 4 times. The whole point of dating is to see how well you can stand the physical presence of someone else in various situations.</p>
<p>Well, I am sure most of us wouln’t exist if it were’nt for teen pregnancy… so there is a positive side to all of this. However No female will ever trap me into marriage…marriage is an immoral, outdated institution that should be taboo.</p>
<p>I got engaged when I was 17. We almost got married at 18, but I decided to listen to my mom and get my degree first. We have since broken up, but remained friends. </p>
<p>Although they were older (late 20s), my parents were married a few months after they met. 20 years later and things are going well. It CAN happen (although it’s rare). </p>
<p>But yeah. I know a LOT of people married with kids that are my age or younger. The marriages young I really don’t care about, but I’m sad to see the kids born to people that young. You’re generally not going to be able to give that kid the stability that he/she deserves.</p>
<p>I can’t imagine being engaged to someone at 17…or having a kid at like 23…it seems so weird. I’ve noticed it a lot but tbh teen pregnancy is nothing new around here, there are SO many 15-17 year olds pregnant in my area. It’s sad. I personally don’t want to be married until I’m in my mid 20s and no kids until I’m in my late 20s to early 30s.</p>
<p>I think a lot fewer people are getting engaged that young than it used to be, which is part of why it’s such a big deal to so many people that some people still do.</p>
<p>LOL Sleep4Me, that’s exactly why I had to date online…</p>
<p>There’s real me, then there’s the me you meet in person. My husband and I would never be together if we had met in person first. Online was really the only place I could be myself. Well, it’s been 7 years and so far everything’s fine, so, worked for us. </p>
<p>I’ve known plenty of people who dated in person for much longer and didn’t even make it a year married. I’ve been in relationships myself where it was a year into the relationship before you noticed that you hated everything about them except the chemistry you had together… lol</p>
<p>From where I come from , girls get engaged between the ages of 18 to 26 or so . </p>
<p>If a girl reached 30 without getting married then she’s unlikely to get married ever .</p>
<p>And in here they consider marriage a very important aspect of life , the moment a guy graduates from college his mother starts looking for a bride for him and if she found one and the guy saw the girl and liked her they would get engaged and marry without any relationships before marriage , in other words : traditional pre-aranged marage .</p>
<p>There are a few couples from my high school who are engaged, and I do also know a few newly married couples who are 19 or 20. It seems odd to me (as a 19 year old) because I can’t see myself getting married anytime in the foreseeable future, but who knows. I don’t necessarily think there’s anything wrong with marrying young as long as you know what you’re getting yourself into.</p>
<p>^^ The problem with marrying young is that your brain isn’t fully developed enough to understand what marriage really is. Hence it’s mutually exclusive to say “marry young” and “know what you’re getting into”.</p>
<p>I haven’t noticed any of my friends getting married. There are people who say they’re married on facebook, but they’re really not. LOL, they’ll be single the next day.</p>
<p>I’m 19 and marriage isn’t on my mind at the moment.</p>
<p>Really? I’ve noticed it just the opposite, it seems like nobody these days is getting married. I know a lot of people my age group(18-22) who have girlfriends/boyfriends but the only ones I know who are getting married are in the military. I disagree entirely.</p>