Sunday, June 03, 2007

HOW LONG SHOULD COURTSHIP LAST??

I've been sitting here for ages now trying to think of something to blog about, but my brain is not responding at the moment. Maybe it will later on, but for now its not so i decided to read the Nigerian newspapers online. I checked THE PUNCH newspaper's online site (www.punchng.com). I came across a post asking talking about how long courtship should last & they gave different stories of people wanting to get married but their families not agreeing because they felt that the courtship wasn't long enough. Here is one:

Agnes was in a fix. Having dated Steve for seven months, they agreed on a registry wedding. Agne's parents agreed because she had just turned 32 but Steve's father disagreed. He said they should wait 2 years to discover each others likes, dislikes & to understand each other well enough.
"But i've made the old man realise that we know ourselves inside out. I've spent many weekends at Steve's place; we quarelled, settled scores & understand each other well. We begged the old man and assured him of our love for each other. At a point, he said we should wait for seven more months. I was shocked because by then, i would be past my 3rd trimester. we had decided not to tell him that i was expecting Steve's baby. I was getting agitated but Steve begged me to be patient with his father, who was an Anglican priest."
"We want a registry wedding because of the pregnancy & needed to speed things up because we planned to hide this from everyone", she said.

What do you guys think?? Do you think the guys father was wrong to tell them to wait for 2 years to get to know each other better? Personally i don't think so because with the rate of divorces each year & people living an unhappy life in their homes, i think its worth having a long courtship to understand the person you are going to end up with. But i would like your opinions on this. How long should a courtship last? What about people who are in long distance relationships? Should long or short courtship apply to them? What about if the man or woman says that they can't wait long. What will you do? What if you are pregnant (as in the story above) what then will you do? Will you marry the guy quickly or wait to get to know him better even if it means you entering your "3rd trimester" (as in the story above)????