Before you plan a wedding comes the very traditional notion of the proposal. These days it’s more important than ever to not just take the next step in the relationship naturally but make sure you’re pushing boundaries while you’re doing it.

While traditionally men will do the proposing, there are a number of benefits of women doing it. If you’ve been thinking that you should propose to your partner but it goes against tradition or there’s something that is stopping you, here are some amazing reasons why, if you are in a heterosexual relationship, you should do the proposing.

You Get More Control Over the Situation

This doesn’t mean that you’d have permission to go full-on bridezilla, but if you are looking for the best places to propose and you feel like you need to capture the moment it is absolutely your prerogative to do so.

Lots of women think that it should be the man’s job to do this, but if you don’t see the day will it actually happen? When you take the opportunity to ask and throw caution to the wind, you are doing everything on your terms.

You Can Start Planning for the Future

Many people want to start their own family and for most people, this all begins with the wedding. Why do you need to wait for someone to decide when you should have a family?

While there’s many people that want to do it all together and come up with the ideal time to have children and buy a house, the reality is that there is never the right time and so if you are both having that conversation about planning for the future and the idea of marriage sits perfectly with the both of you, it’s absolutely the right time for you to do the proposing!

Some Men Like to Dawdle

Not to jump on board the stereotype train, but there’s many men who are either non-committal or are more inclined to sit back and see how the relationship goes. If you are both in the right place in terms of your careers, your values, and your goals, marriage is the logical next step.

It’s just that sometimes men don’t really see it that way. You could feel like you are taking a massive leap by asking them this, but this could either be the wake-up call for them that they need to be that fully-fledged grown-up with a wife and family, or you doing this scares them off.

If it’s the latter, this could be the defining moment that forces you both to talk about what you want out of the relationship and out of life with each other. It’s not necessarily a nice thing to go through, but there are so many couples in life that have had The Conversation, and from your perspective, it is the ideal time to wield some powerful authority – you are taking control of the situation and it is happening on your terms.

While there are still some people who like the idea of tradition, if you are fully determined to have control over your life, give it a go.