from what I read kids mature much younger
now
I'm not sure that's true.
After all, the average for women to get married back in Sparta was 12 or 13. And in medieval England the average age of marriage was about 16. Women were routinely giving birth at an age where our children are still in high school.
The difference, I think, is that because life expectancy is much longer now, we have extended the period of adolescence. When most women died by about 40 or 50, it was important to get families started early, while today a woman can start a family at 30 or 35 and still welcome her grandchildren while she is still in good health.
Also, we feel our society is much more complex, and offers many more opportunities. We take much longer getting our children ready for their adult lives. When most common folk didn't read or write or do more than simple math, and what they needed to know to succeed in life they learned in the home and probably knew perfectly well by age 10 from helping out all those years, and having seen birth and death and childrearing up close and personal, what was the point in waiting to get married?
Yes, our youth are ready for sexual activity in their mid teens, just as youth have for millenia, but we don't let them move into marriage, so what do we expect? |
