Why is marriage and a family THE main life aim for so many girls/women? (loving, child)

[zentropa]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

Me personally, I'm 23 and I want a SO at some point but not at the price getting married and having kids and signing over my income, my b$&@s, and my life to someone else.

Why on earth would you do something like that? The simple solution is to choose a life partner who is financially independent and who loves and respects you.

Or does that prospect sound ridiculously far-fetched to you?

[Braunwyn]

Perhaps it has just been the type of men I've dated, but a majority were always interested in marriage and too soon into the relationship as far as I was concerned.

[Prairieparson]

To the OP. It just is. Its that simple. Don't try to figure it out, don't try to understand a woman's thinking. It just is that way. Its not that women are inferior, dumb, or anything like that. They are just different than men, and when you begin to accept it, it just makes life easier, especially getting along with women in general. There are women that don't want a family, but keep in mind, they may just change their mind. EG. "When Harry met Sally". It happens all the time.

[Aganusn]

It's a mix of essentially brainwashing and biology.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by zentropa

Why on earth would you do something like that? The simple solution is to choose a life partner who is financially independent and who loves and respects you.

Or does that prospect sound ridiculously far-fetched to you?

It sounds far-fetched to me and not a gamble I wanna take with marriage laws the way they are.

[Djuna]

Originally Posted by Alanboy395

It sounds far-fetched to me and not a gamble I wanna take with marriage laws the way they are.

It happens all the time. When you grow up you'll see these relationships everywhere. Most professional women are financially independent and don't rely on a man. You are just too immature to contemplate this reality. Or maybe the women you have around you are not up to par.

[mary324]

Originally Posted by pims26

I've been pondering today.

It seems to me that there is an unusually high level of desire & fixation among young girls & women to meet the right man at some point, marry and then have a family.

I say unusual because I don't see that there is a corresponding level of interest among young guys and men to do the same thing, so I wonder why this disparity exists.

Sure, I know how the images/ideas of what girls are supposed to do/want/aim for in life is a long held view, imbued for a very long time in all modern cultures, but why doesn't this also apply to boys and men (or as much)?

Clearly, enough men have wanted to have such a life, as evidenced by 7 billion humans alive today, even if some of those people weren't wanted or don't know who their father (and/or mother) are.

So we can be taken care of by men. Have men work make money and buy us nice gifts. I trained my husband early on and to this day he showers me with gifts and takes me places.

[zentropa]

What exactly are these "marriage laws" you refer to?

[Miss Crabcakes]

I think a lot of it is social conditioning.

From a very young age, many little girls are given baby dolls and taught to care for babies and be mothers. I remember allmy toys as a child being baby dolls (to learn to mother), Barbie (to learn to attract a man) and kitchen and cooking stuff like Easy Bake ovens (learn to be home makers). Little girls are taught to be mothers and believe in the fairy tales that one day Prince Charming will come along and they will live happily ever after. I knew as a very young child that as a girl I was suppose to grow up and get married and have babies, way before I knew I was to go college, build a career and really, everything else.

[Whyte Byrd]

I find this question very silly considering how many men are married--just as many as women. What a coincidence.

I've had five proposals in my life and all were initiated by the man. That is to say, I had no interest in marriage at the time. Men want it just as much as women if they think they found the right woman. I doubt many of them have a gun held to their heads.