Eventually dating leads to marriage. As two persons date each other more and more, they come to have feelings that they take to be real love. So they have an understanding that in time they’ll get married. Engagement and eventually marriage then are theirs to work through together.

Actually the process of becoming more and more involved with each other is not as smooth as it may seem. Many questions and problems can arise to delay or to hasten the eventual marriage. These questions are so universally perplexing that they must be answered one way or another by every dating young person.

TOO YOUNG TO MARRY?

Young people today are getting married in larger numbers and at earlier ages than they used to in this country. Half of all girls in America are married by their twentieth birthday. They marry boys who are little more than two years older than they are. At the turn of the century their own grandfathers did not marry until they were well into their twenty-seventh year. Nowadays many young fellows marry while they’re still in school, before they have completed their military service, and quite frequently before they’re ready to settle down in a full-time job.

With so many young people of both sexes entering marriage so soon, the question of the wisdom of early marriage needs airing. National figures tell us that the teen-age marriage is the least stable of all. Persons who marry before they are into their twenties more often break up than do those in any other age group.

One reason for the failure of so many young marriages is that it is usually the most impulsive, least responsible fringe of youth that rushes into early marriage—exactly those who have little chance of success in it. Another reason for the failure of young marriages is that quite a lot of them are “shot-gun weddings” which took place because a girl became pregnant. Such a marriage is notoriously poor, for obvious reasons. The over-all reason for the failure of the too early marriage is that marriage is not child’s play. Two persons have to be mature enough to be ready to settle down.

They must be grown-up enough to be able to assume the responsibilities and to enjoy the privileges of being married.

Just the Right Age

Studies indicate that the best age for marriage is somewhere in the early or middle twenties. When the man is twenty-three or a little more, he has completed all or most of his education, he probably is out of service, he usually is ready to get married, and he’s able to support a family. By the time a young woman is twenty-two or twenty-three, for instance, she’s out of school and may have had some work experience. Members of both sexes in their twenties are presumably more mature than they were in their teens. As young adults old enough to have had their share of dating around, they’re now usually ready to settle down.