When do people settle down in your city / area / class / caste? (how to, marriage)

[tvdxer]

When did your age peers (say the class you graduated high school with, or the people around you) begin to settle down, marry, and have children (not necessarily in that order)?

I graduated from what I would describe as a small, suburban / semi-rural Minnesota public high school in 2005. Socioeconomically, the student body was a mix of middle- and working-class with few rich kids, and racially, almost all white.

In 2006, most of my peers were in college, usually out of their parents' homes and no longer under their watch, and not a few of them were partying hardy, experimenting with drugs, and drinking copious amounts of cheap alcohol, not only on the weekends but also on Wasted Wednesday and Thirsty Thursday.

Seven years after graduation it couldn't be more different. Although some continue to party, they go to the same bars middle-aged adults do and only on Friday and Saturday nights. Many are beginning the American dream of marriage, children, and a home in the suburbs, while others are single mothers, shacking up with their love interest or living with their parents, or single fathers, presumably paying child support. The larger part of students remain unmarried and without children, but I would estimate that a fifth are now wed (some to one another) and a quarter, maybe even a third, are parents. More are engaged to be married. It seems like every other status update or picture I see on Facebook is baby-related. All the other moms "like" the fellow mothers' wall postings.

I'm NOT complaining about this - I'm religious, and I would much prefer that they marry and have children than have them continue to party and have abortions in case their contraception fails.

Nevertheless, I wonder: is it this way everywhere? When do adults settle into a domesticated style of life where you live?

[LuckyGem]

I didn't keep in contact with anyone I went to high school after I left. (except 3 friends and that's on Facebook)

People just carried on with their lives and were not concerned with what others did after high school.

I guess my class (year in high school) were pretty independent thinkers and we all went our own separate ways, even the reunions haven't been well attended.

[The Dissenter]

Originally Posted by tvdxer

When did your age peers (say the class you graduated high school with, or the people around you) begin to settle down, marry, and have children (not necessarily in that order)?

I graduated from what I would describe as a small, suburban / semi-rural Minnesota public high school in 2005. Socioeconomically, the student body was a mix of middle- and working-class with few rich kids, and racially, almost all white.

In 2006, most of my peers were in college, usually out of their parents' homes and no longer under their watch, and not a few of them were partying hardy, experimenting with drugs, and drinking copious amounts of cheap alcohol, not only on the weekends but also on Wasted Wednesday and Thirsty Thursday.

Seven years after graduation it couldn't be more different. Although some continue to party, they go to the same bars middle-aged adults do and only on Friday and Saturday nights. Many are beginning the American dream of marriage, children, and a home in the suburbs, while others are single mothers, shacking up with their love interest or living with their parents, or single fathers, presumably paying child support. The larger part of students remain unmarried and without children, but I would estimate that a fifth are now wed (some to one another) and a quarter, maybe even a third, are parents. More are engaged to be married. It seems like every other status update or picture I see on Facebook is baby-related. All the other moms "like" the fellow mothers' wall postings.

I'm NOT complaining about this - I'm religious, and I would much prefer that they marry and have children than have them continue to party and have abortions in case their contraception fails.

Nevertheless, I wonder: is it this way everywhere? When do adults settle into a domesticated style of life where you live?

In my current residence of Louisville, KY, early 20s, no way I'd do.

In my former residence of Washington, DC late 20s and early 30s.

[jackie100]

However, in L.A, it seems like early to mid thirties.

In my family (Asian) ALL my aunts married in their thirties. Education was much more important in our family than getting married; a university education, graduate school. All my aunts were taught to be self-sufficient and to never depend on a man by my grandmother

The more educated people are (law school, medical school etc) the further they delay marriage.

As for me, I will never settle down because I have no intentions of getting married. I simply like to be alone and have no need for a man.

[Snd485]

In DC, most professionals settle down and get married in their late 20s to early 30s, then have children a few years after that, if at all. I think it's because most professionals in their early 20s I've met around here are deciding where they want to go in their careers and how to get there and/or going back to school. I think most delay marriage until they've figured some of that stuff out. But I do have a couple of friends in the DC area and in that age range who married young and are already divorced, unfortunately.

On the other hand, I'm from a small Midwestern town and when I go home, I always run in to people from high school. Many of them married and/or had kids at a younger age (under 25). It's just a different culture. People are a lot more family oriented and less career focused than in DC, which I don't think is always a bad thing.

I'm in that age range and I've recently been feeling the desire to settle down, marry and start a family. I'm done with school, have a good career and I'm the kind of person who wants companionship.