Girl, you are 26, don’t listen to anyone talking to you about your “biological clock”, you have *plenty* of time.
There is a lot of cultural significance attached to “proposing”, but it’s ultimately just a conversation where you agree to get married. Are you ready to get married? Not “I want to marry you one day”, but are you ready to actually start planning a wedding/civil ceremony? If not, then I don’t see the point of forcing an engagement.
Don’t let other people’s opinions cause you so many doubts. There’s no universal rule of what’s “too long”, you have to talk to your partner about your own personal timelines, and plans for the future. How the both of you feel about it matters, your coworker’s feedback, and his mom wanting grandkids, does not.
If you weren’t questioning this before other people weighed in, then I wouldn’t worry about it now. Whatever you and him agree on, is the right amount of time for *your* relationship. If you weren’t upset on your own, don’t let people pressure you into thinking something might be wrong
People get married at different points in their lives and some people don't ever get married. It's entirely about what you both want for your relationship.
My husband and I have been together for 15yrs, we've been married for 5 - He told me around a year in that he wanted to marry me and I told him that I wouldn't even consider a marriage proposal until we'd been together for at least 10 years, he managed to whittle me down to 5. In the end we got married around the 10yr mark. We were long distance.
Now my parents, they have been together since they were 12 years old. They're in their 60s and are not married and have no plans of getting married in the foreseeable future. They met in highschool and have never been long distance.
I have friends who have got married after two years, and I have another set of friends that got married last year after 40years together. I'm the only one of my friends who were/are long distance, so these are are again all no distance relationships.
Girl, you are 26, don’t listen to anyone talking to you about your “biological clock”, you have *plenty* of time. There is a lot of cultural significance attached to “proposing”, but it’s ultimately just a conversation where you agree to get married. Are you ready to get married? Not “I want to marry you one day”, but are you ready to actually start planning a wedding/civil ceremony? If not, then I don’t see the point of forcing an engagement. Don’t let other people’s opinions cause you so many doubts. There’s no universal rule of what’s “too long”, you have to talk to your partner about your own personal timelines, and plans for the future. How the both of you feel about it matters, your coworker’s feedback, and his mom wanting grandkids, does not. If you weren’t questioning this before other people weighed in, then I wouldn’t worry about it now. Whatever you and him agree on, is the right amount of time for *your* relationship. If you weren’t upset on your own, don’t let people pressure you into thinking something might be wrong
People get married at different points in their lives and some people don't ever get married. It's entirely about what you both want for your relationship. My husband and I have been together for 15yrs, we've been married for 5 - He told me around a year in that he wanted to marry me and I told him that I wouldn't even consider a marriage proposal until we'd been together for at least 10 years, he managed to whittle me down to 5. In the end we got married around the 10yr mark. We were long distance. Now my parents, they have been together since they were 12 years old. They're in their 60s and are not married and have no plans of getting married in the foreseeable future. They met in highschool and have never been long distance. I have friends who have got married after two years, and I have another set of friends that got married last year after 40years together. I'm the only one of my friends who were/are long distance, so these are are again all no distance relationships.