Every week we receive several emails from teenagers who want to get married. We respond with reasons we hope they wait until they are in their mid-twenties and our hope that they do research on the legalities that could impact the rest of their lives if one is over the age of majority.
An article by Monica Hesse in the Washington Post Magazine, "The Marriage Divide" notes that her friends on the East Coast tend to think that getting married at the age of 26 is getting married too soon, while her friends who live in the Midwest thought it was about time that she tied the knot.
Hesse wrote: "In the end it didn't matter. You can't choose the age you are when you meet the person you want to spend your life with ..."We do think it matters. Couples may not be able to choose when they fall in love, but they can choose when they get married. We continue to believe couples can lower their odds for divorce if they wait until they are in their twenties.
Being old enough to handle the responsibility for starting a family is required to get married.