I agree. And a played out one in the DMV. |
PP, while I appreciate your response, it's pretty presumptuous to speak for all men and women on the bolded point above. To many of us, male and female, marriage means a LOT more than "joint liabilities and assets." |
Yes you wasted your time. |
Thanks for reading and commenting. I really don't want to sound too academic and get into the history of world civilizations here but there are many different approaches to marriage in the world. There has never been one approach or definition throughout human history. Fortunately or unfortunately, we in the Western Anglo-American experience have relied on an approach which is derived from 17th and 18th Century Western European traditions (or earlier, don't quote me). Today, all it amounts to in legal terms is the joining of assets and liabilities. A marriage 'meaning a LOT more than' this, is no different than being in a serious and committed LTR, because today we don't necessarily need the law to help us remain committed to our partners. Our present approach to marriage was aimed at 'civilizing' what we now call 'common-law' unions so that two persons can have one legal personality for the purposes of property and family life. Hence women assuming the last name of the husband. (I should also add too that this is why there is the philosophical debate today about 'marriage equality' because it is viewed as unfair by some, to have the law privileging heterosexual unions while discriminating against homosexual ones). So our approach to marriage, at the heart of it, is really a legal arrangement that evolved from centuries ago. So it is quite epistemologically safe to call a 'spade a spade' ![]() |
I am not the PP you are responding to. I won't quibble with your definition of marriage, but I also noticed that you said "women call it marriage, but for men..." Plenty of men call it marriage, too, and feel that it is more than just a legal arrangement. Having romantic notions about marriage is not the sole provenance of women. |
Why buy they cow if you can suck on the milk teets for free |
Thanks everyone, this has been a difficult thread for me to read but helpful.
I have a lot of pondering to do. |
I also think you should move on. Not necessarily because he doesn't want to get married yet, although that's an issue. But because it sounds like you have just an "ok" relationship, and he's just an "ok" boyfriend. I think you should find a great one instead. |
OP, think about is this way:
You are ready to settle down. It sounds like he has a few years to go before he is ready. An attractive woman your age should have no problem finding a good man, who has his career going, and is ready to settle down soon. This sounds like the classic first long term relationship, where you think you're in love and you are soulmates, etc., and it just drags on without going anywhere. You don't want this relationship to drag on until you're 30, and find that it doesn't work out. Then, you will have spent essentially your entire young adulthood with this one guy. |
And with this we can now allow OP some time and space to do just that! Not the end of the world OP, just do what you think will make you happy over the long-term. |
+1. She could easily find a date a night. |
Because you and the cow (which is a disgusting metaphor) have decided to enter into a (not-quite) binding commitment in front of your friends and family, due to a variety of cultural and religious conventions? OP, sorry you're going through this. Probably only you know if the reluctance to get engaged signifies a real problem in your relationship, or if it's not. Don't let people convince you that you are wasting your time (I loathe that phrase) just because they were unhappy about how things turned out for them. |
I dated my H for 7 years. I stated my expectations, which was get married at 29 and we did.
You told us what he wants but what do YOU want? Get married in 1 yr, 3 yrs? My brother wanted to wait until he graduated law school, he did, they got married... Dated. 9 years. Is there a reason you think he won't really marry you after his MBA, is this a new deadline? Does he lie in general? |
"Anonymous wrote:
OP, don't be the women who dates a guy for a long time, he strings her along, they break up......"++ My friend and I were talking about this recently, how many of us have been in a relationship in our 20s where we're just kinda stuck going nowhere but we stick with it and waste years of our lives. Good luck. |
Are you married now? I don't think OP wants to wait to start a family at 33. 28 is a very reasonable time to get married, you were just behind the curve. Perhaps you are just someone who won't get married of have kids? OP is not in that boat. |