For those who married young (teens)

**mustang80** · 12-29-2003, 08:45 PM

Do you feel you missed out on part of growing up/childhood? I'm just curious. I can't imagine being married at 16. Being married at 20 seemed young to me.

**Guest1** · 12-29-2003, 08:59 PM

Although we weren't "officially" married - we started our family when he was 15 & I was 17....He graduated high school as a father of 2!

We've talked about this exact question....while our friends were out partying till 2am after prom, he & I were up till 2am because Will had a double ear infection.....everyone else was paying college tuition & we were paying for diapers.....

Did we miss anything - we didn't think so....we knew what we wanted (or so we thought) and we went down that road....we always knew we would end up military, but GW was trying to "piecemeal" his way through college before going in so we'd be on the officer side - never quite worked out that way, but he's finishing now at an alarming rate of speed!

I think instead of feeling "deprived" we've always felt that we had something extra that everyone else was missing out on - we weren't the ones on the losing end, we had our children's childhood & the opportunity to see the excitement & splendor of little discoveries on a daily basis.....

I certainly wouldn't recommend the road we traveled to everyone....it's tough - there's no way in this world Katie is ready to start a family! NO WAY! She's just learning how to properly fold clothes!!

If we could go back & do it again......we wouldn't change a thing! It is what you make it - same as marriage/family at any age!

**voodidit** · 12-29-2003, 09:22 PM

I got marrid at 16 and I do feel I missed a lot. While my friends where going to the beach graduation week I was on my way to Ft. Bliss. I do admit to making up for it later..lol.

**Mom23boys** · 12-29-2003, 09:44 PM

I married at 17 and never thought for once I missing out on anything...just gaining more. I went to my prom with my husband. I tried to do everything everyone else in high school was doing since I was still in high school myself.

I would never want my children to marry young like us, even though we made it work. There were some moments that were harder than others and some that I wouldn't have changed.

**lucy979** · 12-30-2003, 04:45 AM

I was nineteen so I was out of high school. But I still feel like I missed out on college life. We had Baylie our senior year of high school so I wouldn't have had much of a college life anyway!

Now though I look back and am very glad for the way things went for us. It changed both of us for the better.

I would not want our kids to do it that way though. It was really hard and we had a lot of heartache.

**PrairieRose** · 12-30-2003, 11:35 AM

I don't feel like I missed out on anything but I can tell ya that doing it the way we did was hard. I would do it all again but I wouldn't worry about the little things so much if I could go back.....

When you marry young and then start having kids before long the one huge advantage is (not to mention how much more energy you have that age!) that when they are all grown and fly the coup you are relatively young (I still don't have the energy that I should though.....). Dh and I are soooo much younger than most people whose kids have just left home are.

**bamamomto4** · 01-29-2004, 01:35 PM

I don't really feel I missed out on anything but maybe finishing school.I quit just after the 10th grade and had Ashley 3 days before the new school year started.

I remember working with a guy I went to school with(one of my best friends in school).He was a senior and talking about the prom,spring break,partying,and graduation. Here I was a mother of a (almost) 3 year old. And I remember thinking he seemed so immature lol

**Dixie** · 01-29-2004, 04:12 PM

I married at 17 and had my first child at 18 ( 9 mos, and 15 mins. after the ceremony,lol) I was excited to marry and have a baby, but yeah, I felt like at the time I missed out on some of the rituals. I didn't attend a prom, graduate with my class,etc. But, I made the choice to marry young and all, you can't have your cake and eat it ,too.