If we consider biology, <19 is young, 20-30 on time and >30 as bit late but whatever works for a couple is their norm, doesn’t matter if it seems early or late to others. |
| A young person of average health and intelligence has a college degree and ability to earn a basic living at 21-23. What else you want to achieve on top of that and how long you wait to start a family is a personal preference. Heck, if you never want to do it, it’s perfectly fine. You were not born to meet other people’s expectations, just your own. |
Yup but unless they had poor parents making them eligible for aid or affluent parents paying their bills, they have debt and loans. Merit scholarship may pay part or full but usually not at colleges of your choice. |
| I hope so but who knows. I’m watching my college DD navigate this right now. After many years in a relationship that wasn’t very healthy (not dangerous, but she served a life raft function that was too much for her) she is with someone and has a connection now that feels much better and healthier from what I can see. They are young still, I don’t expect this is going to be the big one, but I feel like I have watched her grow and mature and figure out what she needs it is good for her and to me that’s a sign that she’s moving in the direction of being able to figure out a long-term partnership with someone as an adult. |
| I think for any relationship to be considered serious, both should be honest and on same page. No one should make other person waste their their precious years under wrong impression. |
I have discussions with my daughter about being a good partner, about fair ways to argue, about forgiveness and reconciliation and compromise. It’s not just a topic for our sons. |
Why? |
We are mostly late bloomers in my family. All over thirty. I was 30 and the youngest in my family to get married (including my parents). At 33, I was the youngest to have children (including my parents). My children are 22 and 24 and have not yet dated- so they are either going to remain single or be like the others in the family that came before them. To give context, my maternal grandfather was born in 1888. |
Because I believe it’s part of parenting. Not everything in a relationship (whether a friendship or romantic one) will go your way, and everyone makes mistakes. It’s important to say sorry when you hurt someone even if it’s a mistake, and forgiveness and moving on is something everyone has to work on - it doesn’t come easily. These are all lessons a parent teaches a child organically over time, and models as part of a marriage. |
I agree with you about parents overestimating the control/influence they have. |
Sorry. I read, “not just a topic for our sons” as “not a topic for our sons”. |
Overestimating is understandable but overexerting themselves in relationships of their grown 18+ adults is unacceptable. |
| It’s a bit odd how parents find it okay to meddle in romantic relationships of other adults. A lot of controlling issues hide behind “but their prefrontal cortex isn’t fully developed yet.” |
| I see less parents concerned about <25 kids going to war or driving drunk then early marriages. |
| Absolutely. I'm not sure if they will get married and/or have kids. Millennials and Zers are not having a lot of kids. |