by Kirsty O'Lone

Created on: June 01, 2010

Marriage is intended as a lifelong commitment, and therefore the decision to marry is not one that a couple should take lightly. If you are considering marriage it is important that you make sure that you are in fact ready for that commitment.

If you and your partner are considering marriage you need to make sure that you can imagine spending the rest of your life with them and only them. If you can’t imagine never being with anyone else then you are certainly not ready for marriage. Remember that being married to someone means that you will likely be spending almost every day of your life from that point on with them so it is important that you like to spend a lot of time together.

Can you actually live with the person? A lot of people choose not to live together until after they are married, but in doing this they do not know what their partner is like to live with. Some couples, no matter how well they get on with each other simply cannot live together. You have to make sure that you can live with all of your partners little annoying habits, many of them you will not have even noticed if you have never lived together before.

Do you and your partner want the same things out of life? For example do both of you want children? This could be a massive issue later on in your married life if one of you wants children and one of you does not. This is an issue that you really need to discuss before you decide to get married; there is no point in hoping that your partner will come round to your way of thinking eventually.

Similarly so you and your partner share the same ideas for other aspects of your lives? Where would you like to live? This can be another big issue, perhaps one of you wants to stay in a big city while the other wants to live in the countryside. Perhaps this is something that you can compromise on, but if its not then it could become an issue.

There are many things that you and your partner will have to compromise on during your married life together. You have to make sure that this is something that you are both willing and able to do. You cannot have your own way all the time and neither can your partner, this can be a hard adjustment to make, and you both have to make sure that you are ready to do this.

The most important thing to consider when trying to decide if you are ready for marriage is how well you know your partner. Remember that marriage is intended as a lifelong commitment and the better you know your partner, the more chance you have of knowing if they are indeed the person who you want to spend the rest of your life with.

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