By: Natasha Archary
The societal pressure to reach milestones within a strict timeline has placed a lot of unnecessary stress on the average person.
A list published after a 2015 study revealed 25 milestones that people should reach in life.
Amongst the list is of course, all things couple related. From buying a house together, to getting married and starting a family, many people aspire to achieve every milestone on this list in order.
However, perception on what is a societally acceptable approach to life is shifting, with more people veering off the plan to be married with a nuclear family before the age of 35.
The pressure on women in particular to get married before they turn 30, has meant most women grow up dreaming about their big day.
As society has laid out the structure for us which entails go to school, go to varsity, get a job, get married, buy a house, have children, it’s difficult for those who deviate from the structure.
Society’s timeframe doesn’t apply in a practical way anymore, as more South Africans are actually delaying marriage due to the uncertain job market.
There’s also a decline in birth rates over the past few decades and people are postponing family formation and child-bearing because the cost of having children has skyrocketed.
In an ideal world, perhaps we’d all be happily married with two and a half kids by the time we’re 30, but practically it’s not always achievable because life doesn’t always go to plan.
Just because you’re not hitting every milestone within a certain timeline doesn’t mean that your chances of ever achieving these “life goals” is over. It just means that you should trust that things will happen in its own time.
Listen to the conversation on Drive 959 with Glen Lewis:
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