Friday 22 May 2009

Advantages of Marriage Later in Life


pic is by Leon Brocard at Wikimedia Commons

I'm pre-posting this because I'm heading south again early on Friday to spend a few days with my sister, daughter and granddaughter. I'm so looking forward to it.

Hubby and I had our second wedding anniversary this week. It didn't phase us much because our years together are much longer than that. They span more than a quarter of a century. When we finally decided it was time for a wedding, we did it quietly and, I like to think, with dignity. Afterwards I mulled it over and wrote an article about it.

Here's how it went.

As the years go by, the reasons for getting married, rather than co-habiting, are not the same as for younger couples. When you are young, getting married to the person you love usually seems the obvious way to make a commitment to the relationship. Your life seems bound up in the other person’s. You want to be in each other’s company as much as possible, to be there for each other at the end of the working day. You want to have children and build a family unit that will take forward the heritage of both of your families, and of the life you forge together.

Many older people have already had children in an earlier marriage. Even if they haven’t, they may believe they are now too old, or they may be reluctant to start a family in their later years. Some people think it unfair on the children to land them with elderly parents who won’t have the inclination or energy to join them in play and other activities for youngsters.

So why bother to get married? You can still be together as much as you want without the marriage license. In western countries, it’s no longer frowned on by respectable people as it once was. But many couples still do it. If you ask a number of them for their reasons, they’re likely to come up with quite a variety of advantages for them.

If I've pipped your interest, please click here to read the rest of my article and find out what those reasons are.

4 comments:

Mike Golch said...

the thing is that you are together,so what if you did not have a piece of paper that said you can live together.

Jon said...

Hi Jean, this isn't really a comment. I just thought you'd be interested to read my latest post.

Jon

heidi said...

I love all these reasons and I like your approach to it all. I will say marriage is a tough institution though. Hope you are well and just stopped by to say hello!

Unknown said...

Mike - yes. We didn't btoher for all those years. Decided on the wedding for financial security in the event that one of us died (we are both getting on a bit now). And then we got quite excited about it.

Jon - I've been away for a few days. And now I have my granddaughter here. So it will take a while to catch up yet again. But I'll head over to you soon.

heidi - thanks for stopping by. I'll catch up with you soon, too.

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