THE FUTURE OF FAMILY (DECLINING MARRIAGE)
Marriage is the only institution that has never produced a graduate. Once an individual dabbles in marriage, they automatically begin to learn from various perspectives. There is no one-size-fits-all or a perfect marriage. One continues to adjust and make progress. The most important thing is to have an open mind to learn, unlearn, and build on things learnt.
Nowadays, the rate of patience has declined. Every day, the internet is agog with news of separation and divorce here and there. Everything in life right now is fast-paced. Child growth is fast-paced, education is fast-paced, and eventually, companies are fast-paced, looking for employees who are fast-paced to work there. We need things fast, fast. Immediately children are born, the parents are already scheming and mapping out their courses of studies, in fact, planning their lives for them, authorising who to talk to and who to marry.
Now, when these children grow up with this fast-paced mentality, knowing fully well that we are in the world mixed up with various categories of people, starting from the old school mentality, millennials, Gen-Z, and now the Jet Age. They find it difficult to co-exist with such a lifestyle or even settle down with any suitor that comes their way from the other categories. Most often, it will lead to single parenthood, intentional partnering, or even singlehood.
I remember a celebrity recently said, “She is tired of who to settle down with, all these men in their forties, or fifties are not sincere.” There are no good men single again, once they are good as men, ladies rush them in their twenties.” If you look at that statement, it is deep. Once a man is good, ladies will hardly leave him for anything. They hold him tight.
Therefore, from the place of experience, I will say that there is nothing like a formal marital background. There is respect and dignity in such a structure. Family is a structure to build the nation and society. It is a place where one can find solace and comfort when built well.
The major cause of the recent decline in marriage is a sense of weariness and wrong choices made. Some are born out of ego, highhandedness, and wrong foundations laid by some parents during upbringing. Not instilling the right cultures.
In conclusion, just as the holy book says, “train up a child in the way he should go, when they grow up, they will not depart from that way.” We need to go back to the drawing board and right our wrongs as a family. Let us go back to those beautiful memories as a family, then our children will learn, imbibe, and use such experiences and memories to revive the urge for marriage.
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