Most of the people who get married when still young face a problem of short lived marriages due to lack of inadequate knowledge of building stable marriages. Young people aged between 18 to 25 are expected to explore their identity, work and love before getting married and individuals who fail to look into these family transitions miss out on better career opportunities, make poor choices on partners, and may experience problems in future hence ending up divorcing their partners. Early marriages result from falling in love quickly and deeply and as well as becoming sexually intimate with one another early in their relationship and they end up getting married which results into short-lived marriages because marriage as an institution requires beyond the smoothing, lovemaking and the time to time presents. Marriage is based on knowing each other better and being able to start a family and fully participating in one another’s life. According to Tom Muhire a student at Kigali Institute of Science and Technology, “Early marriages lead to divorce because young people are taken up by love so quickly and yet at time its something else thus fades so fast.” “They feel very passionate about one another, idealize each other and commit to marriage soon, more likely than others to maintain an affectionate, loving marital bond such couples are more prone to have their romance dissipate early in marriage and to eventually become divorced,” he said. “People who get married when still young do not have enough knowledge about preparations for a companionship of marriage,” Diane Uwamahoro also a student at Kigali Health Institute,“I got married when I was 25 years but after two years it was not easy for me and my husband to stay married,” she said. She stressed that, dating partners who feel a strong sense of enchantment, who have an idealized perception of their mate suppress negative emotions or behaviors which might undermine their romantic feelings for each other and therefore, may become disappointed in their marriage. Patrick Mugiraneza 45 a bus driver says that, people who get married at an early age rarely discuss their expectations in detail prior to marriage and are less willing to work on their marriages afterwards hence leading to divorce. “I believe that a decline in love, affection among the young married couples during the first two years of marriage is predictive of divorce,” he pointed out. Finally, what matters to have a stable marriage is being more realistic and moderate in one’s feelings and behaviors towards one another and of having a better sense of where they stand in the relationship. Kanye_frank@yahoo.co.uk
