A New Trend?

My cousin and I were walking through a shopping centre last year sometime when we came up behind a couple of teenage girls and overheard part of their conversation. ‘Oh my God! That wedding was so sweet! Don’t you think?’ to which her friend replied ‘Yeah, it was really nice. You do know that they only got married so they could have sex don’t you?’. My cousin and I just looked at each other for a moment and then she commented that after hearing that, you know that they’re either Christian or have been watching Home and Away. And I mention this because firstly, I thought it was funny (although perhaps you had to be there) and secondly, it brought to my attention the fact that the average age of marriage is now somewhat older than it used to be.

As a female in my mother’s or my grandmother’s generation, it was very much expected that you should grow up, get married and start a family sooner rather than later. Far fewer women were worried about carving out a career path as they never expected to be able to follow it. Society, and men, were looking for good wives and mothers so when figuring out what image you wanted to portray to get ahead in life, the ambitious astrophysicist wasn’t it. Now though, in the realm of relationships, rather than being starved for choice, some would argue that we are starved by too much choice. In every aspect of our lives. As our horizons have broadened, so too have our desires and now it’s a whole new ball game.

I thought it was interesting that the concept of extreme sports has only really taken off in the last generation or so. Specifically for men, their personal income is no longer taken up with trying to support a family at an early age and they now have far more opportunity to pursue other endeavours. Women also revel in their disposable income and maintain a standard of living that is not necessarily conducive to the home, husband, 2.4 kids and a dog. Does this make it harder to ‘settle down’ later? I don’t know. I am aware that this is a bit of a generalisation but it is also at least part of the reason that people are currently marrying later in life. People achieve personal fulfilment outside of intimate relationships and some people now want a lot more while they are in them.

So where does this leave us? Well I could go all serious but what I was really thinking about here was extreme dating. They say if you want to meet like minded individuals, you should frequent places where they might be. So if you’re after the risk taker / spontaneous / energetic type of person, forget bars, nightclubs and sporting matches – start hanging out halfway down a cliff. I have heard that one of the dating companies did some sort of event during a bridge climb over Sydney Harbour but how about tandem bungy jumping or rock climbing? This wouldn’t be for everyone of course. I personally am a bit of a chicken when it comes to this sort of thing (it took me a year or so to work up to The Devil at Wonderland) but since fear and love are apparently quite close in the brain, the idea does some have merit. Don't you think?