Interesting article about marriage

[lmurden]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_re_us/marriage_fertility;_ylt=Aop1IYILQYOxn2B6d4XfJIOs0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ

 

[AsscherGirl]

The Professor they quote (Popenoe) was one of my professors in college!! He teaches to Sociology of the Family class and he''s awesome!

I''m not surprised about the regional differences. However, I''m an East Coaster, I hope to not wait so long!

 

[lmurden]

I loved my Sociology and Anthropology classes. As long as you and the guy are a match 30 isn''t too late.

 

[AsscherGirl]

Date: 10/13/2005 1:15:20 PM
Author: lmurden
I loved my Sociology and Anthropology classes. As long as you and the guy are a match 30 isn''t too late.

hahahahah, for a second, I thought you were talking about my Professor!! Popenoe is in his 70''s at least!

But duh, you were talking about my boyfriend. I don''t think 30 is too late, but that would have us dating for 15 years! (h.s. sweethearts).

That''s really why I hope to not wait so long.

 

[lmurden]

How sweet! High School sweethearts.

 

[curlygirl]

Amen to this article!! I''m in NYC, I''m 34 years old and will be 35 when I get married. All of my friends are in the same age range (32-36) and all are just starting to get engaged, married, etc. None of us have children yet.

While I always thought I would be married at 25 and have at least 2 children by the time I was the age I am now, I wouldn''t change a thing about my timeline. The theory that my friends and I subscribe to is that when you are in such a huge city as New York, the dating pool is also huge. But when you''re from smaller towns, you have fewer options. OK, small town girls, don''t get mad at me!! It''s not meant in a negative way. It''s just that there are so many choices here! Honestly, some of those Sex and the City episodes were pages out of my life!! But I''m happily engaged now and wouldn''t change a thing. I just feel that I needed the extra time to really live and make sure I was seeing all there was out there before I took such a huge step in my life.

Ok, coming down off my soapbox now!

 

[MelissaSue]

I heard all these stats on the radio this morning. The regional differences aren''t really that suprising, but what about the thing with washington DC average age of marriage being 30. Do people just not get married there? Its funny, because last week Golden Girl was just saying that where she is (in Utah), she''s 22 and people keep asking her when she''s getting married! So it really is true..

What I found really suprising was how high the percentage of unwed mothers was. The actual article won''t load for me, but on the radio this morning.. they said it was something like 29% YIKES! I don''t know if it was first time moms or all moms.. but that seems REALLY high to me. I guess it really shouldnt, because practically everyone I know has had kids before they were married. And obviously some people could handle that.. but I wouldn''t want to!

 

[icekid]

Yeah, not news to me- I will be the first of my close friends to get married, and will be 26 then! But the all of my close friends are med students and doctoral candidates, so they do tend to put off both dating and the wedding too. And we're in the northeast

 

[Tybee]

Interesting. I''m 37 will be 38 when I wed, always thought I''d be 22, but thank god I didn''t marry that guy, or the next guy, or the next...or wait, is he the next? I lost count.
My friends are all in their thirties and very few are married, we''re just starting now! I live in the big city (Atlanta, if that can be considered a big city) and all of my friends have grad degrees...
I always freak out when I read profiles on theknot and see how young the brides are. I''m so glad that I waited, I was a mess at 22, 23, 24 and so on. I feel like I lived so many different lives in that time. I finally feel settled, I just hope I haven''t run out my biological clock!!!
I guess I''ve just been pretty slow to mature.

 

[lmurden]

I think another big reason for late marriages on the east and west coast is that higher education is a big deal and if you are in college life is very different compared to those who don''t go to school. Honestly, I can''t image being married when I was younger because I''m sure that I would have been divorced by now.

 

[qtiekiki]

Hey We are right in the median age for the United States. I am the first of my college friends and acquintances to get married, although one of my friends just got engaged with her 2+ ering. We have single female friends who are in their late 20''s - early 30''s who are having problems meeting "quality (the word they used)" guys, so where are all those single educated guys in LA?

 

[MelissaSue]

As far as my fiance and I. When we marry I will be 24 and he will be 23. So we''re a tad younger than average, I guess.. I am certainly not the first of my friends to be married. Both of my best friends from high school will be married before me, and actually a third good friend will be too, even though we have now sort of lost touch

...and they aren''t even the ones that had kids before they got married! (I have other friends from high school who did). As far as my college friends though, one of them was married last year (a year after we graduated college), and two others will be married later in 06. So I feel right on track Everyone is all sort of getting married at once all of a sudden too.. It was sort of shocking at first!
My fiance though, none of his good friends from are married, and most of them are not even CLOSE to being married. He has a few high school acquaintances that are already married.. but as far as his close friends and college friends, he''ll be the first one

 

[JessesGrl]

I am 24, I got married two weeks ago..and my husband is 25. We are both college educated, I have a masters degree as well. I guess it goes against the philosophy of "higher" education equals later marriage b/c in grad school ALLLLL the girls were engaged or married. I am the first off all my friends to get married but lately it seems like everyone is getting engaged. Where I live people definately think I am a "young" bride at 24 but in my opinion it''s a pretty average age

 

[selflove]

Date: 10/13/2005 4:23:27 PM
Author: Tybee
Interesting. I''m 37 will be 38 when I wed, always thought I''d be 22, but thank god I didn''t marry that guy, or the next guy, or the next...or wait, is he the next? I lost count.
My friends are all in their thirties and very few are married, we''re just starting now! I live in the big city (Atlanta, if that can be considered a big city) and all of my friends have grad degrees...
I always freak out when I read profiles on theknot and see how young the brides are. I''m so glad that I waited, I was a mess at 22, 23, 24 and so on. I feel like I lived so many different lives in that time. I finally feel settled, I just hope I haven''t run out my biological clock!!!
I guess I''ve just been pretty slow to mature.

LOL! I''ve been slow to mature too--marrying at age 34 next year but I wouldn''t have it any other way. There was no way I could have gotten married in my early 20s, I just wanted to do too many things, and I never had a vision that I''d be married before my late 20''s anyways. All of my friends in their early 30s are now getting married (and pregnant! woo hoo!). I don''t have any close friends who married before age 27, in both small towns in the midwest and here in LA.


qtiekiki wrote: "so where are all those single educated guys in LA?"

qtiekiki, when I moved to LA in 1998, I thought I''d died and gone to heaven with all the single men I was meeting and dating! But it got old b/c this huge dating pool makes everyone pretty non-committal. I''ve met a lot of single educated men in LA but I met very few men who wanted a commitment (with me). Whereas in the midwest, I rarely had a problem finding men who were interested in commitment (with me). (Don''t misunderstand, you can find these men in LA, it''s just hard.) After 5 years in LA I went to Europe to live for a year--it was great to find men who were like the men in the midwest--interested in commitment, interested in marriage and family (with me). That''s where I found my FI. Of course, when I brought him back to LA I was terrified he''d turn into an "LA guy". Luckily it hasn''t happened.

And I really hate to make sweeping generalizations, so I wrote (with me) after most of my statements. But really, when I think about my own situation and that of many of my girlfriends, it IS hard to find guys in LA who want to commit. Maybe it''s NOT just me! Oh who knows.

 

[Erin]

I went to school in Illinois including a small high school (1000) and then I moved to Chicago. Now that I''m 30 I remember the wave of people getting married all at once - right around the time people either did or should have graduated college. Now there is a big wave of those marriages divorcing and a second wave of first time marriages. It''s just weird that the divorce wave is happening simultaneously.