"Ah, well, in that case I have no objection whatsoever."

"Do you want a family yourself?"

"In theory, I guess. I've never--it's not something I've thought about a lot? I'd need to have someone I was interested in starting a family with, first."

"Some people do go about it the other way, but it's probably less advisable."

"When I marry, that's who I'll be stuck with forever. Making a decision I might come to regret because I wasn't willing to wait to have kids seems tremendously unwise. I'll have all the Ages of Arda to do it in, after all."

"That you will!"

"So it's not really an urgent question, whether I want kids or not."

"I suppose not. It's really remarkable how many of our people marry young."

"Yeah. And, you know, it's not like it doesn't usually work out, but still..."

"It usually does work out! That's perhaps even more remarkable. But, yes."

"To be fair, if it didn't usually work out, people would probably learn not to do it."

"We are a people of slow learners, though."

"Some moreso than others, but I do take your point."

"We just look good because the Vanyar and Maiar and Valar are around for comparison."

"Well, I can't argue with that. If young marriages suddenly started turning out disastrous, it would probably take a really unfortunate amount of time for people to stop."

"Yep."

"Fortunately I can't think of any obvious way for that to happen."

"If at the one thousand Year mark everyone gets sick of their spouses we wouldn't have noticed yet, but I try not to worry about things like that."

"I think that if it happened systematically like that there probably wouldn't be an easy solution like waiting longer and being surer."

"That too."

"The Year engagement period certainly seems designed to solve the problem that young marriages exemplify, but I don't know, it's never seemed like an especially good solution to me."

"No?"

"I'm not saying it's not better than nothing, but being away from someone you love for a Year isn't fun."

"It isn't. And makes the transition into a life together a bit awkward."

"Yeah. I think a longer waiting period without the 'can't see each other' part would probably do at least as well, without at least some of the problems."