Marriage usually starts with love and a wedding, but family life demands more than that.
According to experts, premarital education should be seen as a process to help young people prepare their capacity to enter married life and family life responsibly, instead of just seeing it as a class to "meet the conditions for marriage".
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Ms. Nguyen Hoang Anh - Psychological Consultant (Voice of Therapist Office) - said that the greatest value of premarital education is to help young people shift from the thinking "we love each other" to the thinking "are we capable of building a family together?".
Accordingly, experts emphasize 7 necessary content groups that a pre-marital education program needs to have, including:
The first is to understand yourself before entering marriage. Young people need to identify life values, emotional needs, types of attachment, strengths - vulnerable points, and expectations about love and family.
Second, understand your partner and build a healthy relationship. Young people need to learn how to communicate, listen, express needs, set boundaries and resolve disagreements.
Third is the ability to resolve conflicts and manage emotions. There is no marriage that is completely free of conflicts. Young people need to be equipped with skills such as adjusting emotions, non-aggressive communication, knowing how to pause when conflicts are too high, knowing how to repair damage after conflicts and seeking professional support when needed.
Fourth is knowledge about sex and reproductive health. This needs to be an official, scientific and non-judgmental part, including consensus, respect for the body, sexual health, contraception, sexually transmitted diseases, fertility, pregnancy pre-preparation and pregnancy health care.
Fifth is the ability to be a parent and understand the development of children. Young people should not only be prepared for "weddings", but need to be prepared for "post-wedding life". They need to know how children develop physically, cognitively, emotionally and socially; understand what positive discipline is; know how to build safe bonds and avoid forms of parenting based on violence or psychological harm.
Sixth is family financial management. This is a very practical topic but is often underestimated. You two need to discuss income, spending, savings, debt, assets, financial responsibility to both families and childbirth plans first.
Seventh is to build a "marital agreement" on important things. It does not necessarily have to be a legal document, but a serious dialogue between two people about questions such as: Do we want to have children or not? When will we have children? Who will take care of the children? How do you two divide housework?
