Early marriage is better than late marriage

Early marriage is better than late marriage

Introduction

The choice of the time to marry varies from one person to another. Some prefer early marriages while others prefer late marriages. In both cases, there is need to understand the workings of the marriage institution before plunging into it. This paper seeks to discuss the merits of early marriage as compared to late marriage.

Causes and effects of early marriage

The main reason for early marriage is pregnancy. In many instances, young people who are not married have sexual intercourse without using any protection due to lack of information. As a result, the girl may get pregnant and end up plunging into early marriage for purposes of securing a family for the kid. According to McCall (1995, a couple’s commitments can result in a positive compromise attribution. Such young people reach a compromise to secure a future for their children (p.49).

False expectations is another reason for early marriage. Young people get into early marriages in pursuit of protection, security and confidence. In this case many get into early marriages believing that they will enjoy life in a better way together. Moreover, financial stability also causes early marriages. When young people get into sustainable employment, they quickly get into marriages since they feel that they are adequate and able to cater for their families. Another reason for early marriage is infatuations. At this point, a couples get into marriage in a hasty way in order to fulfill their sexual desires. In most instances, such marriages end up in divorce.

Merits of early marriages

Early marriage is advantageous because it offers permanent family support to the couple from an early age. This helps the couple to enjoy mutual development in life. When one enjoins to another person in marriage, he/she is determined to support it towards achieving their goals. Progress becomes crucial for both of the partners since they have shared needs and experiences.

Another merit is that parents of those people that get into early marriages also become happy knowing that their son or daughter is independent and responsible. In many cultures, once a boy or a girl gets into marriage, they cut their dependency ties with their parents. In fact, one of the forces that drive young people to get into early marriages is financial independence.

Moreover, those who get into marriage at an early age are able to get children at a young age and therefore take care of them during their employment time as they grow. This enables them to support their children in their major stages in life, for example, in education, marriage, and even settlement. When young people get into early marriages, they can therefore be able to monitor the children while below 50 years of age when they still have energy. On the other hand, late marriage makes the young people lose their valuable age of conceiving, supporting the pregnancy and getting children. Experts in the field of health have proven that the best reproductive age is between 18 and 30 years of age. This means that late marriages may experiences some problems in reproduction due to more advanced age.

In addition, the mishaps of life are numerous and therefore one needs to get married at an early age and have siblings for purposes of sustenance. At an early age, young people have enough energy and their brains are very active. This gives them the impetus to engage in gainful employment and form a firm foundation for themselves and their families. Having an assurance of spending life with someone they love and focusing their minds on family achievements makes them assertive in life. Late marriages expose the family lineage to the danger of discontinuation. For example, if a young mature man or girl dies before having children, then their lineage is cut short and discontinued.

Young people who are in engagement experience a lot of anxiety and fear of what is likely to happen in their future. This fear impedes on their development and on their anxiety to live a settled life. They get worried about who they will marry and where, when and even how. This fear destabilizes their lives and they end up wasting a lot of time looking for a perfect spouse to marry and live with. This also spends a lot of money and resources that would have been channeled to other useful activities and projects.

Early marriage also offers a learning ground for the young couple. In marriage couples undergo various adjustments in life in order to be able to live together. For example, in physical, mental even on social angles. Early marriage life provides a good time for them to learn about each other and adapt to each other’s needs. At this time, couples still have enough energy and ability hence adjusting to each other’s lifestyle takes a shorter period than when they are old. This provides more time for the young couple to learn from one another and chance accordingly. This is a good foundation for better understanding. After the couple adapt to each other’s lifestyle they then live for long year and enjoy long family life together. Such couples also experiences less conflicts in their later marriage years. According to Gottman and Nan (1999), after a marriage life of six to eight years, a couple has an 87.4% probability of living together with no divorce (129).

Early marriages also provides for sexual satisfaction for the couple. Young people are prone to fornication and even adultery due to the high levels of libido and energy in their bodies. It is also at the early years that young people are influenced to drug abuse. This high sex drive in young people makes most of them sexually pervasive. In the course of looking for a perfect partner to marry, young people find themselves having multiple sexual partners. This predisposes them to sexually transmitted diseases. When this gets into their lives, it demoralizes them and their self-esteem is negatively affected. Others may even go to the extent of committing suicide. We can therefore argue that early marriages reduce the chances of contracting sexually transmitted diseases. On the other hand, those who get into marriage at a late age may experience much compromise from the society. For instance, they may be regarded as masturbators or they may be seen as adulterous. At this point, these people may end up contracting sexually transmitted disease. Couples also enjoy sex more at this age than those who get married when aged since their sexual hormones are more active at this point.

Criticism of early marriage

On the other hand, late marriages have received much criticism from both the elderly and the youths. In many instances, young people would avoid getting into early marriages in order to complete their higher education and even secure gainful employments. Other young people delay their marriages in order to wait for their elder sisters and brothers to get married first. In other cases, some young people leave the decision about time to marry on the hands of their parents. This is especially for the young people who are very dependent on their parents. Moreover, others see marriage as unnecessary step in life and prefer enjoying the freedom of being single, for example, going for night outs without being accountable to anyone.

In conclusion, early marriage is better than late marriage. Though some of its causes are negative like early pregnancies and infatuations, the merits of it are many. A couple is able to get children at an early age and nurture them, is able to learn from each other and enjoy sex life avoiding sexually transmitted diseases.

Works Cited

Gottman, J. M., and Nan Silver. (1999). “The Two Kinds of Marital Conflict,” in The Seven Principles for Making Marriages Work (Chapter Seven, 129-155).York: Three Rivers Press (Random House, Inc.).

McCall, M. (1995). Orientation, outcome, and other-serving attributions. Basic Appl. Soc. Psychol. 17:49.64