I would say this. You are five years old. You can't have a boyfriend or girlfriend until you are at least sixteen years old. That is eleven years from now. Besides, you can't be engaged until you are about twenty. That's fifteen years away. Those are my rules. If you break them when I am your teacher, you will miss playtime. So now you have to sit corners and think about this for five minutes while the other kids use the paints, the clay, and the toys. Don't let me hear this kind of inappropriate talk again.
This worked EVERY time I was the teacher and kids wanted to play this "engaged" game.
The father in this article groomed his son to playact. It's sick, just like it's sick the way mormons set kids up to have early early crushes and to think they have to be married in the temple or go on missions.
I read the article and I'm almost sorry I did. It makes me sick!
From the article, the dad said, "However, Juma has pledged that if the youngsters decide not to marry in a decade's time, he'll honor their request. "We know that Khalid or Hala might change their mind in the future," he said. "But what we do know at this stage is that they are very happy and talk to each other every day.""
Arranged marriages are part of the culture in the Middle East and in southern Asia (India, parts of China). Ghandi was "married" to his wife when he was about 8. However, they did not have an actual wedding and consummate the marriage until they were adults.
Having known a few people from these parts of the world, I can sort of make an argument for arranged marriage. It's a very Eastern way of thinking to marry for reasons other than love. The parents are looking out for their children and are trying to match them with people who come from good families so they will have as nice of lives as possible. Western culture is different.
I'm not saying I advocate taking choice away, but in this article, the dad explicitly says (quoted above) that if the kids grow up and change their minds, he will honor that.
So silly to say that three and five year olds "might change their minds."
Rather, *normal* unbrainwashed kids that age SHOULD and always DO change their minds about almost everything many times as they mature. And no thirteen and fifteen year olds are ready for marriage.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 10/26/2010 01:17PM by Cheryl.