In this overly expressive, socially addicted, commitment-phobic culture we live in, we are practically killing the idea of ‘settling down’. I’m sure you’ve heard of the term ‘settling down’, which basically means getting married and committing to a stable, mature relationship. The term ‘settle’ isn’t really used in the best light, and usually when someone says they’re settling it’s never a great thing – it’s the thing you have to do because it is the left-over option. It’s almost as if settling down is the beginning of the end of your life and this perspective is very common amongst men (and boys); marriage is boring and commitment requires effort and consistency – basically adulting at its finest.

Outside of the people who view relationships and marriage this way, there are those who are very open to the idea of marriage. There are entire generations who have thrived and built their lives around this – take our parents and grandparents generation for example. Their entire metric of success was adhering to settling down. Many of them married in their early 20s, had kids in their early 20s and adulting pretty much started from adolescence. Marriage was always seen to be a gateway to building a successful life, so being single as an adult meant you were at a disadvantage. This view seems very extreme now, but this is where most of the pressure from our older family members comes from.