Advice from the '60s

I recently watched Season 5 of Mad Men (courtesy of Rosenheim library). I absolutely love their dresses!

In one of the episodes, Penny gets asked out by her boyfriend. At first, she is convinced that he'll break up with her until Joan plants the seed that he probably wants to propose. Which Penny gets quite excited about. As it turns out, the boyfriend 'only' asks her to move in together. Visibly disappointed, she agrees anyway.

They then invite Penny's mum over to tell her the news. Which mum is not very happy about at all. Surely, marriage should come first. Mum gets upset and gets up to leave. Penny gets upsets and tells her mum that she is an adult. And then mum says something quite sensible:
If you are an adult, why are you bothered by me disagreeing with your action?
- good point, I thought. On the one hand, we want freedom to make our own decision and on the other hand, we still crave approval - whether from parents, friends or others. What is that about?

Secondly, mum asks why she is settling for this. Mum predicts that the guy will live with her, get it out of his system, and then move on to somebody else who he will marry.
Now, especially nowadays, and especially as I don't believe in marriage, I have slightly different views on this. But what I think is true is that Penny is settling for less than what she wants. She doesn't even dare to ask her boyfriend whether he'd marry her when it is what she wants. Does she not believe that she deserves more? Why do we let others - boyfriends or bosses or whoever else - make such decisions for us? Are we compromising too much? I think I certainly do.