.

No, of course it's not appropriate, and for a woman to behave like this shows a poor upbringing and a lack of knowledge of the Faith.

If they would read devotional books that actually tell people how to live, they would know this is bad. St. Francis de Sales in his classic on spirituality The Introduction to the Devout Life talks at great length about why "platonic" friendships between men and women without any real intention to get married are dangerous and wrong. He says quite simply because platonic friendships of that kind usually do not remain so, which is obvious. So when women say they just want to be friends, that is going against this wise teaching.

As far as the length of courtship goes, St. Alphonsus and most spiritual writers say it shouldn't go longer than a year, because that is long enough to know if someone is spouse material, and longer than that it becomes an occasion of sin.

So the correct and Catholic approach is to say, "Let's try this out for a year or so and see if it works, and if not, we both move on." If women aren't willing to do that with a man, then he is not "friend" material for them either.

This is not some arcane, hidden knowledge that you can only find by digging through lost medieval manuscripts. This is common advice given in almost every Catholic book of guidance for young people. The fact that women do not know about this and don't follow it shows they are neglecting to know and study their faith.

I would question whether these women really want to get married. 

LOL ... yeah, I'm glad I'm not the only one who knows that Everlast22 is Croix, the name possibly being a reference to the fact that he has outlasted about a dozen bans.  And I too was astonished that he got married, but likewise congratulate him (and hopefully his wife too ).  That was my oblique reference to posting history earlier in this thread, where I said that a prosepctive spouse would need time to research his posting history on CI.

He has behaved himself more with this Everlast account, so perhaps his wife is reining him in a bit.

Plus, his wife has it really easy.  She doesn't have to cook, because she can just feed him refined sugar all day.

That's right.  You're a "new man" now thaty you've married.

My one friend lives in the Midwest, so maybe it's a Midwest thing no clue. He asked a girl's father (since she was in her early 20's, but still lived with parents, which is fine) if he could court her, and he basically said she's very shy and wants to hang out with you in "groups".