16 year old student marries 40 year old

[animal_rescue]

I'm going to assume that most of you are well over the age of 20, at least. As an almost 16-year-old, I can tell you that, no, many of my peers are not mature enough to handle marriage, and, no, most of them can't differentiate between true love and infatuation. Yes, age is just a number and love has no physical limitations or boundaries. However, this GIRL is just 16. In this modern world where a large number of teens leave home at age 18 not to start their careers but to continue their education, I firmly feel 16 is not the age to begin a marriage to somebody 24 years older. I don't see why she wanted to rush this. Why not continue dating and wait a few years (i.e. when she enters college??).

And, I have to disagree. There is a lot of mental and physical development that takes place between 16 and 18. There've been a good deal of studies regarding young teens and their ability/mental maturity to drive a car. At 16, it's undeniable that our brains are still in a fast rate of growth and development. Maybe I should stick my head out from my books, but that's my belief.

I definitely have to agree with you! I'm almost 18 years old and I know plenty of peers who think they are in love but are far from it. One example is a boyfriend from when I was 15. He told me he loved me when we had only been dating for about 3 weeks. My answer was "Uhh thanks" When he asked why I didn't say it back, I simply replied I didn't know him well enough to love him. Sure I loved him as a friend but I don't believe true loves comes along until you really have been with that person and known them. Needless to say I dumped him a couple of weeks later, way too immature for me. Happily have been single since. Anyways not trying to make this about me, but hopefully some people will understand seeing it come from us Youngins. I just don't think she is mentally stable enough to be married, in my sociology class we learned the difference between adults and teens and even about how love occurs.

[Lady's Human]

It really depends completely on the individuals involved. I've seen marriages between relatively young people work, and marriages between "mature" (chronologically only) people fail.

Being in the military, you meet people from all areas of the US, who come from all types of backgrounds. In some areas a 16 y/o getting married wouldn't be unusual at all. (This created some interesting issues for the Army when someone from a state where the legal age for marriage was 16 moved with their spouse to a state where the legal age was 18. In some instances the Army had a hell of a time fighting legal issues involving statutory rape, transport of a minor across state lines, etc.)