That makes headlines here. Last night on the news while hubby, the kid and I had dinner we heard about a 9 year old getting married.
It was apparently her dying wish that she be able to marry her best friend, who she met at Children’s Hospital where they both are being treated for Lukemia. It is likely that Jayla will pass in the coming weeks and her parents wanted to grant her last wish. It’s a bitter sweet story, the groom was very sad, because he knew he’d be losing his best friend, his wife, in the next few weeks.
It’s a very sad story. And of course made headlines because it just doesn’t happen here.
My son remarked “Wow!” that a 9 year old got married, and after the story was over I told him surprisingly people marry their children off at that age ALL THE TIME in other countries to be paid a dowry so that they can feed the rest of their family, really it’s more like child slavery than marriage, but also that child marriage is only news here because it doesn’t happen here.
I told him about a 10 year old girl in Yemen that was married off to a man three times older than her that beat her and made her have sex with him. I had to take the opportunity and let him know that there are children the world over that don’t have it like the kids in America have it.
My son is 11, and I know he is nowhere near ready to be married, or come close to being able to live an adult lifestyle. While that story is isolated and I can kind of understand the motives, what do you think of it?
