When I talk to my grandparents and other members of the WW2 generation, I notice something interesting. They very rarely "dated" other people in the sense that we do today, where you go out, meet someone of the opposite sex, share a social and sex life together for a while, and maybe get married, but probably break up. Instead, they typically found a significant other very early in life, and after getting the families involved in the relationship, married at a young age and had lots of kids.
I wonder if this was the result of the times in which they lived, i.e. the Great Depression where dating someone you're attracted to was a luxury trumped by the need to enter a stable marriage and produce kids to help out with the house or business. People in this generation did not prioritize physical attractiveness or compatible personalities so much as they prized loyalty, companionship, economic stability, and family bonds.
Anyone have any thoughts on this, or different observations?
2007-12-25 00:46:25 · 3 answers · asked by Anonymous in Family & Relationships ➔ Marriage & Divorce
It also makes me wonder if the convenience of dating and lack of "needing" a marriage as badly as they did is one of the reasons people today divorce often and seem to lack commitment.
2007-12-25 00:47:40 · update #1
They came from a time when being sexual was not openly encouraged. If you weren't a virgin, you just weren't worth a second look.
You fail to point out that many of them didn't actually get much choice in the matter, we can go out and look for a date at our leisure, they had no such opportunities and as such they would grab the first thing that came along.
But dating also leads to unhappier marriages, as people are all so ready to just drop the load and go look for greener pasture with a new mate.
However my grandparents were the two happiest married people I knew, maybe they were more accepting and willing to work through problems and didn't expect the perfect mate.
2007-12-25 01:05:56 · answer #1 · answered by Skaggy says: 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes things have changed a lot. back then women were expected to stay home to care for a husband and children. with that being the only main goal in life what else would they do? and it was a lot stricter...there wasn't as much one on one time as there is today. and for another thing, it wasn't so easy to get a divorce if things didn't go the way you wanted it to. if you did manage to get one your name was smeared forever. these days women are just as independent as the men. kids are allowed to go out with their peers unsupervised. with everyone seeing all these things available in the world i'm not surprised it takes longer for someone to settle down into a stable lifestyle. i think that we were all better off before though...when things were still simple. when we had to stick out our problems rather than call an attorney. either way i hope you are having a good christmas!!
2007-12-25 08:52:37 · answer #2 · answered by Miss Kitty Katt 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i,m strongly inclined to agree with you across the board
on your observations. you deserve a 10 on that.
good show!!
2007-12-25 08:52:06 · answer #3 · answered by Jerry S 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋