Getting Married Young? What's Your Hurry?

I've been a member on a relationship support forum for quite some time. I've learned a tremendous amount about relationships on there and there's just something that I want to say.

For those of you between the ages of 17 and 21 especially who are batting the idea around or getting married soon. Don't get bent when the late 20s and over 30 crowd advises you to wait. We KNOW what we're talking about. I see SO MANY situations with married couples that got married very young and are in the midst of some serious problems. And most of them are due to the lack of maturity and life experience of the couple (who is usually under 25 y/o). Had they WAITED for a few years, they likely would not be in such difficult situations.

A marriage is about 20% bliss and about 80% of busting your hump to keep it together with ANY age couple. Getting married as a teenager or close to it just INCREASES the odds a considerable amount that it will not work. (And the odds are not very encouraging to begin with, regardless of age).

Go find a 30 year old. Male or female and ask them how much their life has changed in the last 10 years. They'll talk your ear off. You see, in the ages between 10 and 20, we learn how to ENTER adulthood. In the ages between 20 and about 27, we learn how to BE an adult. In the 10 years between 20 and 30, your head will spin with the amount of changes that will happen in your life.

When i was 20, I was in the US Navy. I was single, wasn't in debt, had no kids, never had my heart broken and always had money in my pocket. By the age of 30, I had been married, became a father, divorced, paying child support, being a weekend Dad, was about 20k in debt, living from paycheck to paycheck and playing the single game again.

I totally agree that a marriage should be give and take. that's the way it SHOULD be. But the cold hard reality of it all is that even when a marriage is based on give and take, it's still a lot of hard work to keep it together. Getting married at such a young age just makes it harder. And with the discouraging stats on marriage, getting married very young like that is just setting yourself up for a more difficult run (in most cases)