im just wondering what is all of your opinions on young marriage? perhaps marriage right out of highschool?

my personal belief on this is that relationships that started in hightschool are fine and dandy, but putting all of the stress of real life situations, without mommy and daddy holding your hand, a relationship is likely to faultier. i would think it wise to first move out of mom's home, perhaps with each other, then consider marriage, after seeing how the couple actually relate to each other in a day to day type of situation. but then again i look back 10 years ago, and any my parents marriage, and couples were all getting married at the age of 18-20.

im just wondering what peoples veiws are on marriage, particularly young marriage.

Let's set aside age for a second....

I think before a person enters a relationship with another person they need to be pretty clear about who they are, what they want out of life, and what they hope for their future. This needs to be as an individual person.

They need to know how to take care of themselves independent of anyone else. That doesn't mean they have to do it alone, simply that they are not dependent on someone else to tell them what they want or what they need.

I don't believe anyone can do this while living at home with mom doing your laundry and cooking for you, and dad being sure your car is working well and being sure you get home safe every night. (or vice versa)

Part of what marriage is about is two people caring for each other. And I have my doubts anyone can do that well until they have learned to care for themself.

Long ago people married without ever living alone, but that was when most people married once, and were essentially married to that person until death. Now young men and women who marry at 18 may have several periods between marriage where they need to live independently without their parents or a spouse to help them.

When you are 18 and you go into the world and you screw up - it is not the end of the world. But when you are 35 or 55 and you do it- it can have consequences you can't bounce back from.

So I think before people marry or live together - they need to live alone and take care of themselves. They need to feel happy alone in their home and inside their skin and know that they can make it just find alone. Once they can do that- then they are ready to make a committment to be with someone else.

So if a 16 old moves out on their own- they could be ready at 18, but a 24 year old who has always lived at home might not be.

Susan