3 Signs a Man Is Ready

Is it after one year? Is it after he introduces you to mom? How about when he is comfortable enough to say “I love you” in the presence of his friends? Oh yeah…this one is good…what about after he gives you a key to his place? Having many close friends of the opposite sex, I’ve been amazed at the types of clues some women looked for to determine if their significant other was indeed ready for marriage. Being a dude that has been on more than just a few dates (____ READ HERE ____), I can tell you that none of the previously mentioned clues is enough to think that he is ready for that leap.

This is totally a subjective post. Please don’t use this to start an argue-scussion with your beau tonight. Let me start by saying, I think many in our current society believe they are ready for marriage prematurely. The high U.S. divorce rate is indicative of this. Our right now, reality television, Soulja Boy & Trinidad James rise to stardom, and Bridezillas having a Twitter following type of society is enough proof to me that collectively we should take a moment to consider our choices only after a thorough vetting process.

• Has he started questioning some of your habits that were once ignored? This type of fine-toothed comb evaluation usually begins when a man is considering spending the rest of his life with a woman that he admits has some annoying tendencies. This isn’t all bad. In fact, it could be great. What he is trying to do is twofold. First, he wants to determine how he can best assist in a remedy. For example, let’s say you have challenges being punctual. You’re thinking he never made a huge deal about this during the X# of years you two dated. Let’s even assume you recognize this is something you should work on, but for whatever reason you haven’t succeeded. In his mind asking questions about this potentially sensitive subject allows him to gauge how adamant you are about changing (or not) and also gives an opportunity for him to offer suggestions to work toward improving. If he’s good at this, you may actually miss the initially subtle questioning and advice.
• Is he using “we” a lot more when discussing future plans? Future plans can include many things. This is probably the easiest sign to mistake. Be careful ladies, you don’t want to get excited for nothing. During this stage you may recognize many hypothetical questions. These questions are normally used to help determine if you are the type of wife, mother, tag-team partner he expects his mate to be. It may seem funny to you all, but these things aren’t that important to a dude until we’re considering graduating a woman from girlfriend status into fiancé/wife status. By the way, this can get more intense during the actual engagement period.
• Okay…I’m not taking the easy way out here, but the final Sign a Man Is Ready is when you THINK he is ready. No, NOT when you want him to be ready. Not when that chick at your job gets married and you start thinking her ish isn’t nearly as together as yours. I’m talking about when your heart of hearts is telling you that he is ready. In fact, I’m talking about that good ol’ woman’s intuition. Yup, when that speaks to your gut…YOU KNOW IT!

I’ve had some fun with this post. I think these signs can be helpful if you are in fact a woman who is trying to determine if her male significant other is ready for marriage. However, being realistic and honest with yourself in addition to having serious (even if slightly uncomfortable) dialogue with your dude is by far the best indicator as to determining if he is truly ready for marriage.

What do you think of my advice on this topic? Let me know in the comments!