When does courting begin?

[desertvixen]

We watched the movie in 9th grade - our teacher covered up the butt shot, but apparently "forgot" that there was a breast shot as well.

[clibbyjo]

I have 2 fundie nieces who have had failed courtships(they dumped the boys)

The first was 21 ansd was courting a 19 year old boy. That lasted a year and she dumped him. He quickly found someone else and is married with a bay. Said niece is 24 and single.

Second niece has courted 2 times. The first they were both about 17-20ish. She dumped him for another boy at her church and courted him for almost 2 years when he cheated on her.(he is a college student and wasn't used to the no touch rule) She is now 23 and single.

I don;t think they have much of a shot now, as their church is very small and I doubt there is any "fresh meat" for the girls to choose from. They go on homeschool conventions to work, but not much chance to talk as they are always working.

[ElphabaGalinda]

I would think they would want to start courting as soon as possible, like the day they turn 18. But, while that does happen, the bunches and bunches of SAHDs in their late 20s-early 30s makes me think that doesn't work. I guess it's chosing to keep older girls to help with younger kids, do the housework, and work in home businesses over all the potential babies a girl would have by marrying at 19 or whatever. Of course, you'd also expect all courtships to lead to marriage, because you would think it's the choice of the parents, but the amount of broken courtships shows that isn't exactly the case. I think there's often a difference in what courtships are and what fundies say they are.

[FlorenceHamilton]

In the years before reliable birth control was widely available and folks had large families because that was just how it was, not all people had the opportunity to marry. It was not terribly uncommon for some of the sibling to remain single and become "helpers" to the parents and to the sibling who did marry and have children. Some of these family members did get the chance to marry later if someone close to them lost a spouse and needed either a breadwinner or a childcare worker to replace the deceased spouse.

[Joykins]

In the years before reliable birth control was widely available and folks had large families because that was just how it was, not all people had the opportunity to marry. It was not terribly uncommon for some of the sibling to remain single and become "helpers" to the parents and to the sibling who did marry and have children. Some of these family members did get the chance to marry later if someone close to them lost a spouse and needed either a breadwinner or a childcare worker to replace the deceased spouse.

The Old Maid in the Garret -- considered a sad fate for a woman, but many women did never marry.

[Hane]

There is a line in the Romeo and Juliet play where Juliet's mother mentions that when she was Juliet's age, she already had Juliet. That would make Juliet's mother about 28 years old.

Thanks for this, and a little OT: In the ballroom scene, Juliet's father mentions that he last attended a masked ball and flirted with girls 25 years ago, so that would make him considerably older than his wife. He also mentioned to Paris that "Earth hath swallowed all my hopes but she," meaning that she is his only surviving child. It's possible that he might have been married and widowed previously, and that these lost children were from his first marriage. [/shakespeare geek]