I married young (at 18-and-a-month) because my mother had stopped paying for my college expenses (long story) and I would do MUCH better on financial aid if I was married. The school would no longer count my parents' income, they would only count the income of me and my spouse (which was very low).
I did love my boyfriend too, but there would not have been any reason to marry right away outside of the financial incentive.
As it turns out I dropped out anyway, and we had a son a year after. I would not have wanted to have a son out of wedlock for legal reasons, so in a way it means we started our family sooner than we might have otherwise.
Would I have married him "just for love" if I had the money coming in smoothly for my college education? I imagine not. I knew I loved him, he knew he loved me. There was no need, for us, to go through a ceremony to confirm it. So that is how we looked at it.
I understand completely that different people have different feelings about what marriage "means".
Last edited by Lisa Shea; 11/08/09 11:41 PM.
