Are You REALLY Ready for Marriage?

Amazing as it may seem, many couples are still getting married as young as they did 50 years ago. While most couples wait until they’re settled into a career, many still follow the unwritten rules of long ago when it was common to marry right out of high school.

Indeed, many girls spent their entire senior year in high school planning a June wedding. Their husbands usually had begun the jobs during high school that they would continue to hold until the age of retirement. Some of these marriages lasted. More of them did not.

Fortunately, more women started to attend college and make careers for themselves as time went on. However, something else happened along the way that seems a bit strange.

The maturity of both men and women seems to take longer than it used to. Whereas, years ago, 18 year olds might have been ready for marriage, currently, the maturity level of 25 year olds may not match that of those long ago 18 year olds.
People aren’t made to grow up as quickly as in the past.
That’s why it’s important that couples really need to assess their relationship before they decide if they’re truly ready to make that lifetime commitment to each other.

Marriage is something that should be taken as a serious step in a relationship. Too many couples plan only for the Big Day rather than a life together. There’s no longer the stigma that used to be attached to pre-marital sex. That, alone, caused many couples to rush into a commitment that neither party was ready for. It’s completely acceptable for many couples to live together these days without being legally married.

So why are there still so many couples rushing into marriage at a young age? One of these reasons is still, believe it or not, attached to sex. There are many religious groups that teach against sex outside of marriage even though marriage is more of a legal process than a religious one. Believers of these religions do seem to marry at a young age because of little more than wildly raging hormones. Sadly, the same beliefs that propel these couples into marriage too soon will also keep them together long after their lust is gone because divorce is forbidden.

If you’re an ordinary person with no strict and confining beliefs, there are ways to let you know if you’re ready to commit to one person for the rest of your life. Look at your feelings and intuition when it comes to the person you may be considering a life with. Never ignore anything that feels even a little bit wrong. When you’re ready to marry someone for better or worse, you’ll know it. If you feel even a small doubt, don’t ignore it.

While it’s true that it’s not always possible to foresee larger problems in the future, most of the time you can use what you feel for someone and how you connect to one another as the answer regarding whether or not you’re ready to be married.

How to Make Blind Dates Work for You

Nearly everyone talks badly about blind dates, and there’s usually a reason for that. What typically happens is you’ve been dateless and on your own for a while and people start to notice. These are usually your happily married best friends, sister, mother, aunt, grandmother, and so on. Rarely do you find men interested in setting up their single buddies with someone unless they are being spurred on by their female better half.

No matter who is doing the arranging, blind dates have developed a bad rep over the years.  You know those jokes about “What does she look like?” and the answer is “She has a really great personality.”  That one seemed to alert the guy being set up that the girl he was meeting might be a lot of fun but she was definitely lacking on looks.

If you’re still living in the past, you should push that fast forward button and consider that things today may not be as bad as they used to be when it comes to blind dates.

These days, it’s perfectly acceptable to let someone you TRUST set you up on a blind date. The word in that sentence is “trust.” For example, if you and your sister don’t get along that well, you may not want to allow her to arrange a date for you with someone sight unseen. On the other hand, your best friend will most likely have your best interests at heart. Therefore, it’s probably fine to let her fix you up with someone she feels would be perfect for you. While your sister may be mean and set you up with a guy that you would just as soon not want to be seen in public with, your friend that loves you will want you to ADORE the man she has found for you.

Blind dates shouldn’t carry the stigma they once did. These days, a blind date is a very respectable way to meet someone with whom you may share common interests. More often than not, a blind date now means that someone has taken two people they care about a lot and have found a way to introduce them to each other. There’s no “throwing them together” as in the past. Now, it’s done in a very comfortable and easy going environment so that if things don’t work out, no one is embarrassed.

All of these reasons are why you should seriously give blind dating a shot. If you trust the person that’s doing the arranging, there’s no need for you to worry about it or be wary of it. Look at it as a way to get out for an evening and have a good time, and possibly a delicious free dinner. If things go well between you and the arranged date, you may end up with more than just a pleasant evening. Many happily married couples first met on a blind date and they highly recommend it as a way for singles to meet.