I got married when I was 21. Some folks think that was young. But in 1960, when I married for the first time, the average marrying age for women was 20. I was happy to see the new stats from the Pew Research Center saying that Americans are marrying much later than in years past. Now the average age for women is 27, and for men, 29.
Thanks to accessible birth control, marriages are no longer necessary for economic survival or social acceptance - but they're way more complicated. And statistics also tell us that those who are the most financially stable have the longest and happiest marriages. The inverse of that is that staying married is a huge factor in being financially stable.
Some experts are saying that people need to be renegotiating their marriage from time to time. I thank that's an excellent idea. Just talking helps too. In any case the church concept of:
- No sex before marriage
- Lots of sex after marriage in order to have lots of babies
- Divorce only due to adultery
- Annulment only if you don't have sex
Makes no sense to me and trivializes marriage.
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