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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

do you know anyone who got married very young nowadays

272 replies

lostintranslation12 · 02/03/2022 16:33

I recently found out a distant relative (who is now dead) got married when she was just 18 and her DH was also 18. This was a very long time ago and I know times were different but when I look at my DS who is 17 and although he’s a lovely lad the idea of him getting married next year seems beyond ridiculous. So I wondered does anyone know anyone who got married at a very young age (18/19/20) recently as in since 2010. How did it work out? Did they stay together? How did they manage finances ect?

OP posts:
Seafog · 02/03/2022 18:14

We got married at twenty, still happily married, almost 24 years now

crochetcrazy1978 · 02/03/2022 18:14

Bit outside your timeline but I worked with a girl in 2001 who got married at 16. I got married in 2001 aged 23 so fairly young. Separated age 35

TheMullerLightOwl · 02/03/2022 18:20

Met at 17, engaged at 21, married at 23 (would have been 22 if not for COVID delay)
Obviously have only been married a couple of years so far but very happy. We've only ever lived with each other (apart from parents and university housemates) so I think that makes things easier as there weren't as many compromises to make as I imagine there would be with people who marry at 30 after living in their own space for a few years.

FWIW there was an unexpected family bereavement which opened our eyes to the consequences of not being married to your live-in partner if the worst should happen, but I don't think that sped things up too much

MaddieElla · 02/03/2022 18:24

I was 18 when I met DH in 2000. Married in 2005. Still together 22 years later but have all the ups and downs any other couple have.

Concestor · 02/03/2022 18:27

Yes, two people, they are both still married and very happy.

livingthegoodlife · 02/03/2022 18:28

Married at 23 in 2009. Still happily married.

Mummysgirl12 · 02/03/2022 18:29

We are friends with a couple who had kids at 16. Lived on a council estate. The husband worked his ass off; now a millionaire. Moved to a nicer area. They’re in their thirties and retired living off the company they 100% own. Their kids are teens. They’re very happy. They said no one said it would last!

owlinnahat · 02/03/2022 18:30

I don't know if this is the same but I know about three couples who got together at school and then got married at the end of university and are still very happy. One pair were 17/18 when they got together, the others were 14/15. They all got married in their twenties.

MintyFreshBreath · 02/03/2022 18:30

I was 20 when I got married to my first husband and it was a total disaster. Separated by 23 and divorced at 25. I rarely tell new friends and no colleagues at my last three jobs have ever been privy to it. This is going back 18 years now and is a part of my life that was very painful. He cheated on me loads. In fact I had the humiliation of giving birth with genital warts. He also gave me chlymidia. He was violent and stole from me. We split up several times before it became ‘official’. Our finances were a nightmare as he was in so much debt when we met. He was constantly consolidating loans and then building up more debt. We’d both get paid and then have no money left a few days later. I was living off £40 a month tax credits and barely had enough money to buy my son food, my mum often bought my shopping when my husband was away for work as the cupboards would be bare.

Anyway, I’m now remarried to the most lovely man. If you believe in coincidences, they’re birthdays are 6 months to the day apart so they are quite literally polar opposite’s 😆

Darhon · 02/03/2022 18:31

I was with someone from 22 to 45 - never did the ceremony. But no-one batted and eyelid that I’d met someone and lots of my generation met people in their late teens/early twenties who they settled down with.

MintyFreshBreath · 02/03/2022 18:31

*their

fleurpots · 02/03/2022 18:32

A relative of mine married at 21 four years ago. They're still together and appear very happy.

Maggiesgirl · 02/03/2022 18:34

DDIL was 21, DS was 28 in 2008, still married with 1 DD. Very happy, both work full time, both fitness freaks and both dote on DD.

ThatsALotOfPassionfruit · 02/03/2022 18:34

Within your timeframe but a little outside your age bracket, I got married in 2011 at 23. Still together and very happy two kids in.
We aren’t religious or anything so it wasn’t that that pushed us, we just really wanted to. Strangely no one voiced any concern (or definitely not to our faces!). However at my age now, 23 seems crazily young!

Whetheryouthinkyoucan · 02/03/2022 18:34

My cousin married his wife at 23 and 21 respectively. Happy 14/15 years later with several kids.

AllThingsServeTheBeam · 02/03/2022 18:35

Not married. But I had DC 1 at 21. I'm nearly 32 and still with DP. Been together 13 years.

tyoy · 02/03/2022 18:36

Not married but DH & I met at 18, been together ever since. We got married at 28, didn't want to rush!

tyoy · 02/03/2022 18:37

now 38 with primary school dc

Comedycook · 02/03/2022 18:40

I'm 40. Out of the girls I went to school with, the youngest to get married was 21...her and her husband were very religious. Next one to get married was 23.

Pyewhacket · 02/03/2022 18:44

I got married on my 22nd birthday in 2001. I met my husband in my second year at University. We established ourselves financially by working overseas for a number of years. In fact we were able to buy our house outright when we came back to the UK. Three kids, 19.16 and 14. Still happily married.

Plantsandpuddlesuits · 02/03/2022 18:45

We married straight after uni pretty much so 22, 23 ish. Getting on for almost 20 years together now, we have grown up together in a way. No regrets marrying young.

CagneyNYPD1 · 02/03/2022 18:46

I am late 40s and the only people I know who get married so young these days are either from Catholic Gypsy/Traveller families or from Muslim families.

When I was late teens, I knew of one couple who were not religious who got married at 18. It lasted a few years until she ran off with his best mate. Leaving him to raise 2 disabled children.

peboh · 02/03/2022 18:50

I got married at 23, the first in my friendship group (dh was 25 and first) and everyone told us we were too young.
We're 28 and 30 now, and very happy still but I can also see where others were coming from. Most of my friends are only now starting to settle and marry their partners, and our lives have been very different to theirs in the last 5 years. Not bad different, but different so I can understand why to some it would be seen as young.

sayanythingelse · 02/03/2022 18:50

DH had just turned 22 when we got married (I'm a bit older). I know 3 people who got married younger than us. 2 at 18 (both divorced) and an ex-colleague who's a traveller and got married at about 16/17 (also divorced).

Most of our friends are just getting married now in their 30's. Looking back, we were too young but it worked out so hey ho.

bambi1132 · 02/03/2022 18:52

I got married in 2011 at 21, DH was 24. We're still together.