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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Anyone ever got to the grand old age of 30 and NEVER been married?

79 replies

MuckyStudent · 29/02/2012 07:54

I'm 30 with a string of crap half arsed relationships behind me. I'm now staying single until the right one comes along - but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't bothered about marriage. I'm 30 and never even got close Sad

Anyone else got to this age without ever wearing a ring? Anyone else passed this age who ended up acquiring a ring for the first time post 30?

OP posts:
feelokaboutit · 29/02/2012 10:05

SGB, your posts always make me feel happy and relieved so keep on posting Grin! Happy and relieved that another kind of life might be possible or good even. I've got a lot to be thankful for but I do think it comes at the price of being with someone even though we are both at the stage where we could easily move on from each other. It's really the kids holding us together, but I don't know how society could re-arrange itself to make co-parenting easier and more acceptable, as well as not so hard on the kids (trauma of family separating etc...).

badtasteflump · 29/02/2012 10:06

Yes I had 'rings' before 30 but they were all the 'wrong' rings. I didn't marry DH until I had reached the 'ripe' old age of thirty, and that time it was definitely the 'right' ring. Stop panicking and enjoy being single Smile

JugglingWithTangentialOranges · 29/02/2012 10:06

Wow Seaofyou The average age for kids to leave home is 34 ?
Are you sure about that ? I left home for Uni at 18 !
But maybe DS(10) isn't kidding when he says he wants to live here forever Grin
DD says she will live up the road !

MistyMountainHop · 29/02/2012 10:08

i was married at 25, separated at 26 then divorced way before 30 Blush

then married again at 31

i wish i had never got married the first time round, i was too immature to know what i wanted and cringe looking back at how naive i was

KatAndKit · 29/02/2012 10:08

Almost 34. Not married. Never have been. I'm in a relationship which I am assuming will lead to marriage in the forseeable future though and we have a baby on the way.

At 30 I was not even in a serious relationship and had no notions of getting married yet.

GentleOtter · 29/02/2012 10:10

Married for the first time at the young and foolish age of 46. I proposed two leap years ago and we married just before ds was born.

Before then, I was very happy on my own with dcs and was not looking for a partner. Meeting Dh was a surprise.

PopcornGrace · 29/02/2012 10:13

I'm like ChiefExecutive. Met husband at 35 (almost 36) and married at 37. Like her I'd had long term relationships before and to be honest if you do want marriage and children 'boyfriend/ girlfriend exclusive relationships' in your 30s are actually a waste of time.

I think you are better staying single and dating until you meet the one you want to marry - e.g. do it the old fashioned way - you are either engaged or single. Long term 'boyfriend / girlfriend' relationships benefits men NOT women (who want marriage and children). If it breaks up a women has spent valuable fertile years whereas a man can easier go out a get a women younger....

Finallyfinally · 29/02/2012 10:13

On my 30th birthday, I hadn't even lived with a bloke. Met DH at nearly 31, married at 33 (20 months later), knocked up by 34. It all happens in your 30s, I tell you!

HepHep · 29/02/2012 10:14

Well I'll be 29 this summer and never been married, though have lived with someone once. That was fucking hellish, strongly tempted never to do that again but I don't know if I could find a husband happy to live next door to me Grin. The person I'm seeing right now seems amenable to the idea, so who knows?!
I did get sort-of proposed to once, but it was cringe-worthy (my best friend who had fallen in love with me and who was almost crying at the time) and he immediately blurted 'Don't answer that!' after he asked, because he knew what my answer would be and he didn't want to hear it aloud. :(

I hope if I ever get proposed to again, it's a lot happier and groovy an occasion.

suburbandream · 29/02/2012 10:15

I met DH four days after I turned 30, and was married by the time I was 30 and a 1/2 Grin

mrs2cats · 29/02/2012 10:17

I didn't meet my husband until I was 32 (16 years ago). Married at 34 and had first child at 36. Before that just a string of broken relationships.

Although happily married, I do sometimes wish that I'd enjoyed being single more and worried less about not being in a stable relationship at the time.

AndiMac · 29/02/2012 10:17

Met more guys than I could shake a stick at the summer I was 31. And this is from someone who only dated a handful of guys in her 20s. Met now DH at the end of the summer. Got married at 34, had first kiddo at 35.

Single is so much better than being with a jerk. Be patient and enjoy yourself in the meantime.

wheredidiputit · 29/02/2012 10:20

I met Dh just before I turned 30 and married just before I turned 32.

On the other hand my brother was married and divoirced twice and married again by the time he was 30.

akaemmafrost · 29/02/2012 10:24

Divorced twice before I was 40. Marriage is overrated Wink.

BettyPerske · 29/02/2012 10:27

Goodness, you're only a puppy Smile

I'm 38 and I've only been asked once with a cardboard ring...that didn't last long. (was about 20)

However I have got two lovely children and a wonderful DP who I only just met. I don't think I was anywhere near ready to get married to anyone before.

Might be getting there now. It's a big deal really isn't it. But when you love someone, it's just automatically easy to want to put in the work and commitment.

Don't rush, it'll happen one of these days.

hairytaleofnewyork · 29/02/2012 10:29

I got married at 38 had been together 13 years. Split at 41, Divorced at 42.

Big mistake! Cost me a lot of money.

diddl · 29/02/2012 10:30

HelloGrin

We met when I was nearly 30, married when I was 31&1/2, PFB just after my 32nd b/day, PSB just before my 34th b/day.

hairytaleofnewyork · 29/02/2012 10:30

HOoy ending though - now ha a lovely DP and a nearly six week old baby :)

BettyPerske · 29/02/2012 10:34

Yes, keep busy...do your own thing! Guys go for women who are happy. That's about all, you've gotta be happy, the rest is all pretty immaterial.

NiceBiscuits · 29/02/2012 10:34

Oh gawd, yes.

I am acquiring a ring, as you say, at the utterly ancient age of 42 this summer.

Good luck! You've got ages yet.

JulesJules · 29/02/2012 10:46

Met DH when I was 31, been married 17 years Smile

coffeeslave · 29/02/2012 10:48

I'm 35 and I've never cohabited. I bet I beat you all Grin

toddlerama · 29/02/2012 10:51

We were 24 when we got married and were made to feel like naive children by a number of people!! I really don't think it is the norm to get married before 30 anymore. Certainly, we weren't treated as though we were 'the norm'.

3teenhell · 29/02/2012 10:57

Well i am nearly 33 and never been married.
Have 3 lovely children (same dad) and last year met a wonderful man. Hoping this one lasts ( and really think it will).

However there will be no wedding for me, I have been told by DP that he has no wish to get married ever.

Not sure if i mind or not Confused

bibbityisaporker · 29/02/2012 11:00

I got married at 31. Hardly anyone I know was married in their 20s. Personally, I think getting married in your 20s is too young!