My husband and I have known each other since we were sophmores in high school but did not date until more than 30 years later. We had a whirlwind romance and DID NOT do the "wild thing" until we were married.

I had been married before and he had been in a long term relationship where his significant other passed away. I decided when we began see each other that I was going to not to do what I used to do in my previous relationships. As the expression goes, "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always gotten!"

I waited and was glad I did!

Any time there's a "this is the one way to do it," I'm skeptical. There are so many factors involved, and so many variables.

The article didn't consider was the background of people who didn't just jump in the sack, or those who decided to stick out their "extremely unhappy" marriages: it takes so much to make a relationship work, not the least of which are societal supports. Were the people who were reticent to sleep together initially more religious? Were the people who "stuck it out" more socially conservative? From similar cultural backgrounds? Working together? Having to be cautious? None of those questions were addressed. Instead, a blanket statement was made, and a correlation forged, seemingly in relation to the question. Who knows why longer relationships work out? Arranged marriages have very low divorce rates. Is that therefore the way to go?

And just why do we take long relationships to be the only marker of success, anyway? Especially in this day and age?