Young Love: The Challenges and Benefits of Being a Young Couple

When you’re young and in love, it can feel like the entire world is on your side. Everyone you know is rooting for you to succeed and making sure you are well aware of just how lucky you are to have found love at such a young age. However, this also comes with some challenges that might not be expected. You get married sooner than anyone would expect, so it can be hard to keep up appearances when everyone knows exactly where both of you live. You might not have much money because your first jobs don’t pay very well and living together puts a strain on finances even more than your own personal funds ever did before. You might not have many friends who actually understand what it’s like to date someone as young as yourself, so social outings become harder to plan and attend. Perhaps most challenging of all; You find out very quickly what kind of person this other person really is once the honeymoon phase has passed...

Money is a constant issue.

When you’re young, you don’t make much money. Depending on your job, you might be lucky to be making between minimum wage and $10 an hour. This makes saving up for a down payment on a house seem like a mission impossible. It’s also really, really hard to save up for things like a honeymoon or even a trip to visit your families. Every little thing seems to cost an arm and a leg, especially if you live together. You’re still liable for the same things when you’re married that you were liable for before you got married, but now you’re both on the hook for it. Communication about your financial situations is key to helping keep you both in the black. Keeping separate accounts is a good idea until you get more comfortable with each other.

People don’t understand what it’s like to date when you’re young.

When you’re young, you don’t care about a lot of the same things that other people your age care about. You probably don’t care about getting into a good school, or landing a great job after graduation. You don’t have a lot of extra time to go out and make friends or go to parties. No one who is older than you can really understand what it’s like to date someone as young as you unless they were in the same situation. You might find that you need to keep your dating life and your social life separate because they really don’t mesh well. It’s also possible that your friends might not like your significant other, even if they’re just a little nervous.

You find out very quickly who someone really is.

When you’re dating when you’re young, you don’t have years of experience to know what someone is like. You don’t have the ability to say, “Oh, this is just how they are.” If something starts to bother you, or you feel like your significant other isn’t treating you the way they should be, it can be a lot harder to deal with it than it would be if you dated someone for a few years. You don’t have the history to fall back on, and you don’t have the experience to know how to deal with it the best way possible. This can make it easier to break up with someone when you don’t want to be with them anymore, but it also means they can break up with you just as easily.

Being a young couple means you have that much more to lose.

When you’re young and dating, you don’t have a lot to lose. You don’t have a ton of money, or a ton of possessions. It’s easy to get comfortable with someone when you don’t have a lot to lose. When you get married at a young age, you have everything to lose. You have a roof over your head, you have a car that gets you to and from work, and you have bills to pay. Getting comfortable with someone when you have a lot to lose is a lot harder than it is when you have nothing to lose. Trusting someone completely is a lot harder when you’ve already got so much riding on that person.

Conclusion

When you’re young, you don’t have the life experience to know what you want or to know what makes you happy. It’s easy to get trapped in a situation that isn’t good for either of you. Dating when you’re young can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of pressure. It’s important to remember that even when you’re dating someone, you’re still figuring out who you are.