In School Together

There are young married couples who continue their schooling simultaneously. They get an apartment in the student housing on the campus, or they live with or near one set of their parents, and both remain students. In some situations this works out very well. In others, there are problems.

The most urgent of these problems is money. Where will it come from? Two can live as cheaply as one—but only for half as long. Somehow young married students must find money to live on while they complete their education. Veteran benefits have been a source of financial aid in recent years. Parents, in some cases, are willing and able to continue the help they were giving their son and daughter before they were married. Sometimes the couple can float a loan or live on an inheritance. Often one or both of them carry part-time work.

Problems of juggling marriage, education, and work come largely from the pressure of competing responsibilities. It takes time and attention to establish a marriage. Study requires concentration. Almost any job takes something out of a person. Some young people can take the triple responsibility; others find it just too much.

Babies Complicate Things

Many a married couple plan on finishing their education, only to find that a baby is on the way. When a baby comes, a young mother has to drop out of school. The young father may have to get a job in order to take on the additional responsibility. He may have to curtail his educational plans. When a couple marries, babies are a part of the picture. Recent studies of married university students indicate that most of them did not plan on having their babies so soon, and if they had it all to do over again they would have postponed their weddings.

Sometimes, of course, the reason why a young couple married while still in school was because a baby was already on the way. Such weddings put pressure on both the young woman and the young man to hurry up and “make things right” before the baby was born or, if possible, before the pregnancy was discovered. Most people agree that this is not the best start for marriage.