If you have ever been in a long-term relationship, surely the idea of ​​marriage has crossed your mind. But marriage is the most important and final step in a relationship. Marriage is a commitment to someone forever and a commitment to start a family with that person (if you are that age).

But how long should you wait before making the decision to get married?

It is mainly a matter of commitment to your partner. For most men, commitment is seen as something that requires a lot of thought and creates a lot of procrastination. Many movies and comedies talk about how men don’t want to commit themselves even if they love someone with all their hearts. For women, commitment is a sign that her man only wants her and her forever.

Since men are the ones asking the big question (unless you’re a woman who believes that women can propose on February 29 of every leap year) marriages can be postponed until the man feels comfortable. Men are often polygamous and like to “sow their oats” with many women before choosing one forever, making the decision to marry a difficult one. This is true when you look at men who go out at night right before they get married, when they have that last hurrah for being single.

Religion, in the old days, used to dictate to society that marriage was only acceptable before having children, let alone having sex. Women who had children before marriage were often marginalized by society. There was a time when these women were forced to give these children up for adoption by government agencies and other groups, and they had to resist strongly to keep their little bundle of joy.

Then, of course, there is the peer pressure. In the old days (and something still happens today) peer pressure influences couples’ decisions to get married. What will happen is that all these people would frown on their relationship going on for years without a marriage taking place, triggered more if children were created in the relationship. Couples would break down under the pressures of what is acceptable in society.

The modern trend today is for people to not even bother to get married. What will happen is that a couple will live in a de facto relationship all the time without starting a marriage or an engagement. They will even have children and start a family and never get married! It is a decision that used to be intolerable for society, especially with the influences of religion, particularly Catholicism in the Western world. Now it happens every day. It’s all about that minutiae word “commitment.”

Other factors that play a part in couples who refuse to marry are the lack of economic resources to save enough to get married. If you want a memorable day, you’ll often have to pay tens of thousands of dollars for quality service, including hefty fees for the church you want to get married in. If you want a cheap marriage with no frills, you can go to the Registry of Births, Deaths and Marriages, or if you live in the United States, you can do the job really cheap and fast by getting married in Las Vegas. Again, these acts are often highly frowned upon by members of society. Often partners see this as unromantic and sometimes sleazy.

Marriage isn’t even as powerful a union as it was in the old days. Consider the divorce rates of Western society. According to recent studies, more than 50% of marriages fail. When people get married, it’s not all over and over with all their love lives. Divorce is so easy these days that everyone knows when they get married that there is always a way out and they dismiss claims that it will happen because they are in love. But it does. Most wealthy couples take precautions to avoid the laws surrounding this, and will have their future spouses sign a prenuptial agreement because of the high possibility of divorce so they don’t lose their assets.

Some women even make marriage and divorce a habit. Think famous people like Liz Taylor or Rue McClanahan. They have been married countless times and the marriage seems more insignificant each time they get divorced. When they end their relationship, they just dump the guy! They have been married more than 13 times between them.

Marriage doesn’t even have the same meaning that it did in the past. Marriage used to be about love and the desire to start a family. Now it incorporates many other factors. An example of this is an immigrant marrying a citizen in a different, more economically developed country in order to obtain citizenship of that country. With the advent of the Internet, international marriages are much more common.

Marriage can also be about simply wanting to participate in a commercialized ceremony. Consider those people who go to mass wedding services and marry a complete stranger, in Bangkok and Shanghai. Many times they know each other, but many times they are just two people fed up with searching and want to get married.

Finances also have a lot to do with considering a marriage. How important is it to have two partners working to pay off the house? Consider the tax benefits of marriage. Consider the value of commitment when discussing the finances of couples who want to marry. Some people simply get into de facto relationships just to save money on the cost of living and end up getting married.

So if you are thinking of getting married, remember that this is the person you will see every day for the rest of your life, or until you get divorced. You will learn everything about them. Each of its good points and each of its bad points. You will wake up every morning and see what this person looks like. You will grow old together if you are married that long. Your children will resemble your partner.

If you are young, you should know that you have the rest of your life before you have to make that decision. If you’ve been together for five years and you’re both happy the way you are, stay that way. If the woman is getting impatient, let her get impatient. They both have to be happy and confident in her relationship if they want to take it further. If you’ve known each other for six months and you’re thinking about getting married, know that 50% of marriages fail. The marriage path is good if you don’t care about the sacredness of marriage, but you may find it more difficult to get a new partner with each divorce you have.