Modern relationships come in all shapes and sizes.

Back in the day (we are talking a generation ago) relationships appeared much more innocent. People didn’t date, they ‘courted’ and wooing was very much the order of the day. People would meet at tea dances or through friends and family. You courted your significant other until one day a proposal was made. No doubt the proposer sought permission from the father of the potential bride. All of these traditions and formalities made relationships proper and decent and thought through.

Fast forward a generation and millennials are finding relationships through other means.

Tea dances disappeared and nightclubs took over. The thought of writing a letter to a loved one is almost laughable for many young people, with the youth of today choosing to head onto sites like Tinder and other online dating sites to find love. Often love isn’t even the main aim of these sites. Hookups, casual dating, and promiscuity isn’t as frowned upon as it once was. As long as everyone consents, modern relationships take on many different forms.

Marriage

Marriage, however, is still seen as a serious and official institution that not even the most laissez faire millennial would enter into lightly. True love comes when you least expect it, or so they say. Some people choose to marry after a long and formal engagement, whereas others head abroad and elope. While it sounds wildly romantic and spontaneous, the only issue with eloping comes if a couple decides to split up. The issue of international divorce is complex. While never considered in the throes of young love, this should always remain a consideration.

Ask your grandmother how she met your grandfather. Chances are they had a relatively short engagement and children soon followed after marriage. They probably didn’t live together until they were hitched, so were very much thrown in at the deep end the moment they returned from honeymoon.

Differences

Nowadays, it is almost a given that couples will live together prior to getting married. Children may come along out of wedlock too. This was once frowned upon, and a stigma was attached to offspring without a married mother and father. Fast forward to today, and this situation is almost the norm and no one bats an eyelid.

While many people like to hark back to an era of innocence with wooing and courting at the center of relationships, we mustn’t forget how hard it was. A generation ago women in particular who sought a divorce or wanted to escape an unhappy marriage faced difficulty. People are more free in the twenty first century to make their own decisions and work out what is right for them. If this means having many monogamous relationships, casually dating, dating men and women, being a single parent family or deciding not to have a relationship at all, then so be it. Society doesn’t care or judge as much as it once did.

Modern relationships are complex. The dawn of social media has made Facebook stalking an easy thing to do. People flock to Instagram to find images of the perfect relationship, despite heavy filters. Living up to this is nigh on impossible, which is why many modern relationships fail. However, if you can combine the innocence of days gone by, with the technological advancements of today, you may find your perfect partner.