The first thing that sprang to my mind when I read your question was 'Where's the rush?'. It's nice to see two young people so committed to each other but if you really love each other it won't matter if you get engaged tomorrow or in 5 years time. Also, if you are questioning whether you are too young or not, the chances are you're not quite ready for this stage in your relationship. Rather than getting really serious, why don't you just enjoy what you have and see what comes of it? You're only young once!

Good luck to you. Two years is about two years longer than any relationship I had until I was way into my 20's. That is in your favor. No one can stop you from "being engaged." So, it is really a personal decision. You are not your own legal person though yet, so don't forget that part. Unless you are emancipated, your parents (either set, or even one from either side), can make your lives a living hell. I know because my mother did this to me when I was "engaged" at 16. So, perhaps it would be a good idea--unless your parents are, all four?, fully on board--postpone an engagement. If you keep an engagement secret in order to avoid over-stimulating parents who might not support you, then...well...the engagement, which should be a HAPPY ( ! ) thing turns into a covert operation, robbing it of its happy qualities. If you tell everyone, including your parents and say the hell with it to anyone who doesn't support you, they can legally make your lives miserable for you. Let me tell you how this worked for me when I was 15 years old in high school. When my BF, who was two years older than me, and I decided we were serious, it was pretty obvious. No crack detective squad was necessary. We spent all our time together. My mother got a restraining order against him, which made it criminal for him to come near me. Don't...make me recount all the horrors of that. Just...trust me. It was extremely fucked up. For all of the above reasons, I strongly advise that you wait to get officially engaged so that: 1) it can be a truly no-holds-barred happy occaision, and 2) that nobody can tell you other wise. Oh yes, and 3) so that just in case you are wrong, you can have a few more years to figure it out. (For instance, my mom ended up being right. That guy was not the guy for me. Sometimes when you have evilly oppressive parents like I do, you will do anything to get away from them. My mother was soooooooo bad that I was willing to marry any guy that came along. So perhaps you can analyze yourself in THESE terms too.) But in the end remember: it's your decision. It belongs to you and you alone.

I am also 16 years old and questioning whether or not to get engaged to my BF of 4 years. Over and over again I have turned the question around in my head merely putting myself in a stressful and horrible situation. Eventually the simplicity of the dillema hit me and I thought WHY NOW? WHAT IS THE RUSH? You and I are so very young, we have our whole lives ahead of us. So the most obvious way to prove to yourself, your partner and angry onlookers that your truely commited, sensible and mature is to show them that you can wait and be patient. Also that you don't need an engagement to prove anything and that at the end of the day - your keeping your options OPEN! Good luck to you and all the best for the future!

I really don't know what to say. I am in kind of the same situation. We are planning on moving soon and my BF says he wants to come with us. He turns 18 soon (I'm two years younger, but one school year behind him) and we have discussed engagement. He's really for it, and I would like to think I am, but I can't know right know because we're both so young. I would suggest to you to maybe hold off on being so Official with it and just enjoy the relationship. When you're both 18 then you can decide for yourself and hopefully have a better idea than you do now. If you're wrong then it will be less pain all around to keep it more casual now.

1. Why do you need to be engaged for so long? Why wouldn't you just wait until you can support yourselves and then be engaged for a reasonable amount of time and get married. 2. You have been together for two years because you haven't been out in the world to meet other people. Hopefully you will meet many new people once you graduate high school and leave home.

in the nicest way possible, i'm going to say don't get engaged now. you haven't even had any responsibilities in life yet. when you start dealing with those (and i'm not talking about doing you're homework on time), then see how life w/your partner is. and if you know you wnat to be together, what's the rush?