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Love and Marriage…before 30?

By Lara Howsam In asking people what they want to do before they turn 30 there have been some similarities in the…

By Lara Howsam , in Almost 30 and Counting: How to seize the day , on March 21, 2010 Tags: , , ,

By Lara Howsam

In asking people what they want to do before they turn 30 there have been some similarities in the responses – people want to travel, people want to complete their education and they want a steady well paying job.

What people haven’t said is – marriage.

“Usually by the time you’re thirty you would want to be on your career path, have a house or nice apartment, be with someone you love and ultimately start a family,” Twenty-four year old Avery Haug said. “But, you could point out that everyone is different and that there are varying opinions of what life should entail.”

Maybe this is what is so scary about turning 30 – you are expected to “have it together.”

But are expectations of what it means to “have it together” changing?

Haug is right everyone is different, but according to the average age of marriage is on the rise.

Source: Statistics Canada. Mean age and median age of males and females, by type of marriage and marital status, Canada, provinces and territories, annual.

In an in The Huffington Post by David Wygant he says that people should wait until after they are 30 to get married.

“You are not ready to get married until you have first gotten to know yourself. That is what your 20s are all about.”

Wygant goes on to say that “I really and truly believe that people should not get married until they hit the age of 30. By that age, people are older and ready for it (whether that means they have had enough relationship experience or “sewn their wild oats” or whatever it might be).”

CBC that in 2000 the average age of brides hit the over 30 mark; with the groom typically being two years older than the bride.

The CBC in-depth report conducted in 2005 said that “in 2000, first-time brides were 31.7 years old, while grooms proclaimed their first marriage vows at an average age of 34.3. Only two decades earlier, women and men were 25.9 and 28.5 years old, respectively, when they got married.”

According to the CBC report Statistics Canada attributes the rise in the average age of marriage to greater economic opportunities for women and growing popularity of unions.

This makes sense to me – at 26 I am concentrating on receiving my Masters degree in Journalism and, at least for now, that takes all of my focus.

I am pursuing something that I love – for me.

I believe that marriage is in my future but it is not something that I stress about, or put a time line on.

I do however want to be on my career path before I blow 30 candles out on that birthday cake – the rest will come!

  • Click to see 30 reasons not to get married before you turn 30

Comments


  • Excellent ADVICE…. YOU WILL BE ON THE RIGHT PATH BOTH IN JOURNALISM AND LOVE.

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