Does anyone else thinking getting married at 18 is insane?!

[MemorisingHamilton]

My lovely MIL got married when she was 18. I look at my DD (17) now and the thought is beyond preposterous

I left home at 18 and was working/training to be a nurse..........I met someone and we married when I was 19. We were married for 16 years and the failure of the marriage was nothing to do with the age we married. I don't regret marrying young, I was never a wild party animal.

I left home at almost 18 years of age, lived with a total dick until I was almost 22 when we married. I knew it wasnt right for me but still went ahead with it (very small register office do.)
Within 2 years it was all over. Started seeing someone else aged 25 and got married a week before my 30th birthday.
On the morning of the wedding I gave myself a pep talk saying "are you sure you want to do this" and "nows the time to say no if you dont want to." We married and are still married 20 years later. But you are so right, marriage at 18 is a mental idea.

I think I was still shagging my way through the phone book at 18, marriage wouldn't have been compatible.

I was married at 20, separated at 23, divorced at 25. At the time I thought I was all grown up etc, now I just think ‘what an eejit’ 😂😂 Happily married again now but it was 9 years after my divorce and I was single most of that time (met DH 7 years after divorce but he was an old friend so known a lot longer) I look at 20 year olds now and just can’t believe I did it!! They’re all so immature.

It was a different time. I left school at 16, met DH at 18, got married at 20. That was 37 years ago, & we are still together 5 children later.

I was at college (Day Release) with 3 other girls of similar age and was the oldest of the 4 of us to get married. They were all 19. Lost touch with 2 of them but the other is still married to the same man.

My DM was 19 when she married. MIL was just 21. SIL was 20 and BIL 22, no divorces.

My own DC are mostly in their 30s and only one is married. To me that is odd.

A couple in my family married at 19 after knowing each other 6 weeks and being from different continents. That was 18 years ago, they're now late 30s and they seem happy enough!

I met my DH at 19 and knew on our first date we'd be married so it wouldn't have mattered whether it was then, or a few years later (as is what happened).

That said, I wouldn't want the same for my DC as I'd like them to forge slightly more independence in their early 20s than I did.

One thing I have noticed with the couples that married young, most didn't have children for 10 years or so and I think that probably helps.

My older aunts and parents all married before the age of 21, it wasn’t unusual- though one aunt got married at 16 and lived to regret it but stayed with him.

I expect if you went back to those times and told them that there grandchildren would be going to university eating ready meals, and not independent they’d have been jyst as shocked

It’s all relative

I agree it's too young - I've been with my DH since was just turned 15, we didnt get married til I was 26 and looking back I'm so glad.

I couldn't imagine the pressure we would have been under if we'd have got married at 18, even though I knew by then that we would get married at some point.

We didn't get engaged til we'd been together for 9 years and again it worked out so well as there was no pressure.

I started going out with my DH at 17, he was just 18. We bought a house at 19, married at 21 but then we deliberately waited to have children until we were 29/30. We are still together now after 33 years but I think if we'd have had kids straight after getting married, our story might have a different outcome!

Our kids are now 19 and 20 but I couldn't imagine them getting married so young!

I met DH at 17, engaged at 19 and married at 21. I had my children at 23 and 26. All my friends thought I was far too young to get married and have kids but everything has worked out well for us, still happily together 23 years on.
It really does depend on the individuals but thinking about my 18yr old niece or nephew getting married seems totally bizarre to me, they still seem like kids

I got married at 22 and had Ds. I was living on my own and working at 16. I bought a flat at 19. (I'm 40 now so not of an older generation).

My Ds is 18 now. I think of him doing all that and laugh.

My MIL was married at 19, FIL was 30.

They're still together but they're very different people. I suspect MIL would have been happier with someone else.

My DH & I both met at 17, got engaged & moved into together at 18, married a few years later and started a family a few years after that.

Still very happy, totally depends on the relationship, not something you can generalise on. We have no regrets.

Everyone I know who married as a teen or married their high school sweetheart got divorced by their early 30s

That includes me btw

In most cases, yes.

The average marriage age gets a bit older with each generation, I think.

I didn't feel it at the time, but looking back, I think I was too young to get married when I did at age 25. I don't know why. I already had a uni degree, a job and a house by 23, but I felt I wasn't really ready for it. I waited until 31 to have a child though.

My mother was 21 when she got married, back in 1969, but those were very different times.

I would be concerned if my own child expressed an interest in marriage before completing education or having a proper job.

Dd is 19 and isn't even considering it, even though she's been with her BF for four years and they live together.

It is insane for sure.

Watching american crime things on youtube, cerebral I know :-p I get the impression that getting married very young is a thing in America still. The amount of people that were still marrying their high school sweetheart in these crime shows and then murdering them because they didn't want to be divorced . That would have been 1995-2005 ish so not that long ago.

My ex’s gran was married at 13 and had 4 kids by 16 😫

13 😯

It’s very young.

My mum married at 18 and was divorced at 21 😬.

For 18 years old now, yup it's nuts. Years ago people were more mature at 18 (usually) and I don't think it would have been that crazy.

@notafanoftheman

My ex’s gran was married at 13 and had 4 kids by 16 😫

Well that's child just child abuse.

My Nana was married at 18, had two kids by 20, and by the time she had her third in her mid-late 20s was considered ‘geriatric’. It was very much the norm in the 50s/60s!

Mad though. When I was 18 I was shagging anything that moved and partying at every available opportunity. I certainly wasn’t mature enough for marriage or babies.