Actually, most working-class women in England, which means most women, married in their mid to late twenties, after they and their prospective husbands had saved up enough money to establish themselves.
In America, where there was open land, an early age of marriage was far more common. When land ran out, as in 19th c. Massachusetts, the age of marriage went up again.
And why I’m tangenting off on this I don’t know. If the boys were developmentally five, well, five year olds play doctor.
There are some group homes for adults I’ve been to as an EMT, staffed entirely by Caribbean immigrants because it’s low wage work. Our society isn’t willing to pay much to care for the mentally disabled but I do believe that institutions of a modest size would be better than isolated group homes.
“Actually, most working-class women in England, which means most women, married in their mid to late twenties, after they and their prospective husbands had saved up enough money to establish themselves.”
I lived in England for a large part of the 1980s and the teenaged “old maid” sentiment was still strong then.