Best age to get married... best age gaps between partners>>>COME AND SEE!

In My Humble Opinion
1

Okay Okay.
Here you are then. So as we can see, it says that the best age for a woman to be married is … wait for it

And the best age to get married for a man is… wait for it…
32.

These sound like crazy numbers to me. I mean 32? WTF? I’d prefer having kids at that age (at least my first set anyways). Now it says in the article as an aside, if you really wanna be logical about marriage, a man should be around 6 years younger than his wife.

Why? Because

a) Thier sexual appetites are more closely matched

b) The two partners will die at the same age (a comforting thought)
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. Methinks this logic is a little off. See it pleases me that they say a woman should be older, since my current girl is a little bit older than me (2 years). However getting to think about anything close to marriage, and I’m not so sure that this is really all it’s cracked up to be.

I mean there’s another way of looking at it logically. See the above scenario doesn’t really contain the prospect of children. Let’s face it, the best way for a couple to start a family is for the man to have a slightly higher salary than the woman (the reason being that there is no net loss in income after we have allowed for the reduction in “family salary” of one of the partners). Obviously as it is the woman who will bear the child (last time I checked anyway), the guy is gonna have to support her (unless you want to do the noble thing and run away to the Canaries). The responsibility to bring home the bacon will reside with him (and it’s no more bullshit son, you’re gonna have a kid now. Get moving).

OK so we’ve established that. Now let’s say me and my girl wanna plan for a family. I’d like to have a kid by around the age of 31/32/33 ish - by which time I believe I will have established myself financially (please note that we are not allowing grandparents or any other parties to take full responsibility for said child/children).

Now she’s gonna be 33/34/35 - ouch. I’d hate for her to have her first child around abouts then. See if she was around five or six years younger (she would be around 26/27/28) than me, it would be (at least biologically) far more … well, for lack of a better word - safe. The chances of all those birth defiencies (spina bifida, downs syndrome) go down with age right? Plus it just ain’t healthy for her to start having her first children in her mid-late 30’s.

So my proposition is that if you want to have children, let the man be five or six years older than you (maturity-wise, you’re not too far apart - and even if you are, there’s room to catch-up). If you are not planning to start a family, then your best bet is to marry an older woman (as suggested).

As for the best age to marry, I think the source is way off. I think boys and girls are too set in thier ways at the above (quoted) ages.

So which do I think is the best age to marry?

Well, the following three guys haven’t done too bad:

Noam Chomsky (21)

Steven Weinberg (21)

Sandy Weill (21/22 - can’t quite tell)

(Please note: each has been married for at least 44 years)

I realise this list is male-centric - but I believe the women are close enough to the age of the men on the list (if not identical).

So I’ll posit that the ideal age to get married is 21 (after graduation - beware pre-grads!)

Your thoughts on any of these topics?

–Please note also - I have not meant to cause any offence. If any women above the age of 35 are giving birth sometime in the forseeable future, please take no notice of my crazed ranting, and treat me as though I were a rabbit caught in some weird orgy of mindless drug-taking and sex. I love you all. Peace.–

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Oh and add Alan Alda to the list (another 21).

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FWIW, my parents got married when they were both 18. That was in 1972, and they’re still together and happy! :slight_smile:

They had their first kid (my older sister) in 1978, so my mom would have been 26 at the time.

4

When Hal Briston and I got married, he was 31 and I was 21. It will be 5 years this July. I think those were good ages for us because men mature much slower than women (no offense to anybody…just my opinion). Hal was still a little more mature than me, but not by much.

We started trying to have children about a year ago, with no luck yet. That right there is the problem with a woman waiting to get married / have children. You don’t know if it is going to happen right away. If you are 30 when you get married and you wait until you are 34 to have kids and it takes a few years, the odds of conceiving go down and the odds of giving birth to a healthy baby also go down.

So, as long as both people in the relationship are mature…younger is better. I would say for a girl…21 and for a guy…27. Sorry about the age for the guys…but they need to get some “things” out of their system before they tie the knot, in my opinion. :smiley:

5

I was way too busy with having fun, getting educated and seeing the world to get married in my twenties, at 34 I finally felt like settling down, so went out to find a permanent partner. I got married at 36 and I know that although it may be difficult to have kids now, I just wasn’t ready before now and have no regrets.
My mum is 7 years older than my dad, so I grew up thinking this was ‘normal’. When I look at them now, it all makes sense - men seem to age faster than women! Unfortunately, my husband is the same age as me, guess I’ll be hauling round an old gezer when I’m still sprightly.