In your opinion, is 26 "young" to have a first baby?

[Anonymous]

The problem with having kids in your 20s is that most high paying jobs require one or more of the following to continue climbing and making a lot of money:

Long hours (tough with kids)
Grad school (tough with kids. Also hard to pay for childcare and grad school at once)
Client dinners (again, tough with kids)

If you've managed to have kids in your 20s, make a lot of money and already have kids without sacrificing your career or having fun then that's great. However, most women can't.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News flash. You should be thinking of winding it up by 30, not just starting to think about it. It is this extended adolescence thing thats fueling this. No, you don't have to travel around the world, buy the huge house.

Wrong. Smart women make sure they are set in their career and are on track for retirement and home ownership before having kids who are extremely expensive.

Waiting until your in your 30s does not automatically make you smarter than a woman that had a child in her 20s. What is wrong with you? That line of thinking is the farthest thing from smart.

Most people don't need to wait until they own a house to have kids. Kids can also live in apartments and townhouses or heaven forbid a rental home. They don't need to see your name on a mortgage to be well taken care of and well adjusted children.

Kids are expensive, but so are IVF treatments and their cost burden on the healthcare system and so is the fact that you will have young children at the same time that you have to take care of aging parents, that will be incredibly draining on your finances if it occurs simultaneously. It will also be worse for you if you end up with your own serious health problems right around the time your kids are in high school or college.

There are pros and cons on both sides. Don't act like you are so much smarter. That just makes you sound incredibly dim witted.

[Anonymous]

I don't think it's too young at all. Enjoy your little one when he or she arrives.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News flash. You should be thinking of winding it up by 30, not just starting to think about it. It is this extended adolescence thing thats fueling this. No, you don't have to travel around the world, buy the huge house.

Wrong. Smart women make sure they are set in their career and are on track for retirement and home ownership before having kids who are extremely expensive.

Waiting until your in your 30s does not automatically make you smarter than a woman that had a child in her 20s. What is wrong with you? That line of thinking is the farthest thing from smart.

Most people don't need to wait until they own a house to have kids. Kids can also live in apartments and townhouses or heaven forbid a rental home. They don't need to see your name on a mortgage to be well taken care of and well adjusted children.

Kids are expensive, but so are IVF treatments and their cost burden on the healthcare system and so is the fact that you will have young children at the same time that you have to take care of aging parents, that will be incredibly draining on your finances if it occurs simultaneously. It will also be worse for you if you end up with your own serious health problems right around the time your kids are in high school or college.

There are pros and cons on both sides. Don't act like you are so much smarter. That just makes you sound incredibly dim witted.

It doesn't make you smarter but it does make you more likely to have gotten to a place in your career where you can have a child and coast for a bit while still earning good money. It also makes you more likely to be financially stable and able to afford kids.

When I was 26 I had a job that required a lot of travel. I know make 2x as money and very rarely have to travel. Having a child at 26 would have destroyed my career. I probably would have had to take a few years off from working. Instead I continued to climb.

Many IVF treatments are a result of male factor. Waiting a few extra years to have kids doesn't mean you're on a fast road to IVF. There's a huge difference between having kids at 26, 35 and 40. You have to weigh the options.

[Anonymous]

Is this conversation even real? If you figure out how to make it work and that's what you want in your 20s- great. If you wait until your older, that's great too.

Does anyone really care about this?! I judge people who care about this 1000x more than I would ever judge two adults who decide to become parents at a certain age.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News flash. You should be thinking of winding it up by 30, not just starting to think about it. It is this extended adolescence thing thats fueling this. No, you don't have to travel around the world, buy the huge house.

Wrong. Smart women make sure they are set in their career and are on track for retirement and home ownership before having kids who are extremely expensive.

Waiting until your in your 30s does not automatically make you smarter than a woman that had a child in her 20s. What is wrong with you? That line of thinking is the farthest thing from smart.

Most people don't need to wait until they own a house to have kids. Kids can also live in apartments and townhouses or heaven forbid a rental home. They don't need to see your name on a mortgage to be well taken care of and well adjusted children.

Kids are expensive, but so are IVF treatments and their cost burden on the healthcare system and so is the fact that you will have young children at the same time that you have to take care of aging parents, that will be incredibly draining on your finances if it occurs simultaneously. It will also be worse for you if you end up with your own serious health problems right around the time your kids are in high school or college.

There are pros and cons on both sides. Don't act like you are so much smarter. That just makes you sound incredibly dim witted.

It doesn't make you smarter but it does make you more likely to have gotten to a place in your career where you can have a child and coast for a bit while still earning good money. It also makes you more likely to be financially stable and able to afford kids.

When I was 26 I had a job that required a lot of travel. I know make 2x as money and very rarely have to travel. Having a child at 26 would have destroyed my career. I probably would have had to take a few years off from working. Instead I continued to climb.

Many IVF treatments are a result of male factor. Waiting a few extra years to have kids doesn't mean you're on a fast road to IVF. There's a huge difference between having kids at 26, 35 and 40. You have to weigh the options.

Please take the time to read the post above which is what I was responding to. The poster that thinks "smart women" only do things her way. Having a child at 26 may have destroyed YOUR career, doesn't mean it's that way for all women and it doesn't mean that you are more likely to be more financially stable than a women who had kids a few years younger than you either.

You would think that all you well educated, job coasting, home owning before having kids women would have a little more common sense than thinking like that.

I didn't own a house and I didn't coast at my job when I had kids in my 20s, but we made it work and we were and are still happy 10 years later in a home that we own and a career that I'm very happy with. It can all happen at different times you know. My kids know we didn't always live in a 1.3 million dollar home, that we did struggle, that life is all about changes and future goals as well as adaptability and hard work. We are now on track for retirement, kids will be in college while we are still young and we still have so much in life to look forward to.

There is no one right way or one smarter way or one way that will certainly secure your future.

[Anonymous]

My daughter is due in December on my 22nd birthday, no you are not too young. Nobody has made negative comments to me, and if they do behind my back I don't care, I am prepared for my girl and have been a nanny for years, I know I am ready. DH is the same age, is in his career job and I'll be finishing up my degree while she is young.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News flash. You should be thinking of winding it up by 30, not just starting to think about it. It is this extended adolescence thing thats fueling this. No, you don't have to travel around the world, buy the huge house.

Wrong. Smart women make sure they are set in their career and are on track for retirement and home ownership before having kids who are extremely expensive.

Waiting until your in your 30s does not automatically make you smarter than a woman that had a child in her 20s. What is wrong with you? That line of thinking is the farthest thing from smart.

Most people don't need to wait until they own a house to have kids. Kids can also live in apartments and townhouses or heaven forbid a rental home. They don't need to see your name on a mortgage to be well taken care of and well adjusted children.

Kids are expensive, but so are IVF treatments and their cost burden on the healthcare system and so is the fact that you will have young children at the same time that you have to take care of aging parents, that will be incredibly draining on your finances if it occurs simultaneously. It will also be worse for you if you end up with your own serious health problems right around the time your kids are in high school or college.

There are pros and cons on both sides. Don't act like you are so much smarter. That just makes you sound incredibly dim witted.

It doesn't make you smarter but it does make you more likely to have gotten to a place in your career where you can have a child and coast for a bit while still earning good money. It also makes you more likely to be financially stable and able to afford kids.

When I was 26 I had a job that required a lot of travel. I know make 2x as money and very rarely have to travel. Having a child at 26 would have destroyed my career. I probably would have had to take a few years off from working. Instead I continued to climb.

Many IVF treatments are a result of male factor. Waiting a few extra years to have kids doesn't mean you're on a fast road to IVF. There's a huge difference between having kids at 26, 35 and 40. You have to weigh the options.

[Anonymous]

Having my child at 27 did not require me to take off a few years, career wasn't destroyed, and I'm making $30K more a year later while coasting. I own my own home, and can afford my kids. Age has nothing to do with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:News flash. You should be thinking of winding it up by 30, not just starting to think about it. It is this extended adolescence thing thats fueling this. No, you don't have to travel around the world, buy the huge house.

Wrong. Smart women make sure they are set in their career and are on track for retirement and home ownership before having kids who are extremely expensive.

Really wrong. It's the house thing that's killing this generation. You want it all right away. And...retirement? That is a joke when you are 59 to 62 and you have kids in college. No retirement happening until late 60s ....if you are lucky.
Please don't tell me about how expensive kids are....we all did it.

I was 25 when I had my first son. I was three years out of grad school, we both had good jobs with career tracks, and owned our home. We lived below our means and have saved well for retirement and for college for our three sons. It can be done.

You completed grad school at 22?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm pregnant with my first and just starting to announce and people are surprised and saying I'm "really" young to be having a baby. I'm 26 and married, not 17! We both have good jobs and I'll be returning to work after the birth.

I was 24 when I had my first and now pregnant with my second at 30. I loved having my first at the age I did, and while #2 was a surprise, happy this one is coming while I'm still 30 as we'll still be relatively young when the youngest is off to college. I always said that I wanted to have my child in my mid-twenties, but definitely by 30 at the latest as my plan was never to have any after that.

[Anonymous]

If you feel like you can comfortably care for a baby and want a baby, then there it isn't too young at all.

[Anonymous]

I think it's awesome. I wish my life had been in a place to have kids earlier but I didn't meet my partner till 28 (he was 25). We married when I was 31 and got pregnant at 32. I'm 36 now and have a 6 month DD and 3 year old DS. Life is good but I would have LOVED to do the baby/toddler thing in my late twenties/early thirties instead. More energy, basically.

[Anonymous]

Yes. I'm 41 with a 2 year old.

[Anonymous]

Don't care when you have your baby.

I do think to myself - wow, so much better to have them when you're younger and in better shape. I had my first at 31 and thought I was old.