Quote From: compassionI argree with kelly but also might I add,if you guys thought of getting married??If not then don't even think about kids,you two need to commit as a couple before committing to a child together.And even if you get married,wait a long time a few years to get to know one another better.....hellO!!!!
It is not necessary to be married. You can have a commited relationship without being married. My parents are married, but only married when I was 12 years old. They are great parents, before and after they were married. I was born when my mother was only 21 years old. My parents knew they wanted to have me more than anything in the world. But they decided not to get married yet because they weren't sure they believed in marriage. After me they has a son and another daughter. I am 21 and live in my own appartment, but I visit my family home at least 3 times a week because we have a great relationship as a family.
Maybe I see marriage differently because I am Dutch and we have a different view on marriage than most Americans do. For Dutch people it is very easy to get a contract were you and your partner state that you live together and share the responsibility of children. You then receive the same rights and duties as married people.
Marriage is a piece of paper. It is the love between two people and the work they dedicate to their relationship that makes them a commited couple. Census Bureau's Statistical Abstract of the U.S states that in the year 200140 % of every marriage in the US ended in divorce. So being married doesn't necessarily mean happily ever after.
