Someone posted this on X, and I wanted to expand on it:

“Women need to concentrate on their education & gaining skills to protect themselves & their children before they are born. If I could do my life over I would never have men in my life till self sufficiency was achieved. Even if you marry an honorable man nothing is promised.”

While I understand and sympathize with this, it’s also incredibly sad. And I wish this wasn’t such a common attitude.

One reason women are largely unhappy is they bought the lie that they must be self-sufficient before even thinking about marriage and children.

Which can take decades, if ever. By that time, they may be too old to have children, or at the very least have difficulty conceiving even with IVF or other means, let alone find a good man to marry.

I married at 22. It’s one of the best decisions I ever made, because I had (and still have) a partner to not only share my joys and successes, but my sorrows, my pain, and any challenges I can’t handle on my own (like reaching a cup from the top shelf). I am also assured that will be the case until one of us dies.

My husband is not only my biggest cheerleader, he also keeps me grounded. I am successful because of him, not in spite of him.

I can only hope I give to him even a little of what he to gives me.

Some might call me lucky, and that my experiences are not the norm.

I don’t deny people have gone through terrible marriages, and not all men make good husbands.

But not all women make good wives, either.

Such as women who think marriage and children are something to avoid until they have the means to leave whenever they want.

Because marriages—good marriages—require each spouse being willing to give everything, and I mean everything, to his/her partner until death takes one of them away.