Reply to Why do young people have kids they can't afford?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I had my kids in my mid-twenties.  I don’t think that having kids was all that hard.  There are harder things.  I’m in my early forties now and will be an empty nester in a couple of years.  I have just taken a new job in my field and taken some leadership roles in my department.  I actually think it’s better to have a lot of experience working (as well as a lot of life experience) before jumping into this role.

[b]The idea that people need to be in senior positions at work in order to have enough flexibility to have children seems bass-awkwards sometimes.  My little sister works in consulting, and she worked incredibly hard for a lot of years leading a team of people, doing a lot of travel, etc.  First of all, why are companies  paying a ton of money to take advice for a bunch of twenty-something’s who are just a few years out of school?  Secondly, she took an internal role two years ago when she had her first child at 36, and I don’t really see how she’s realistically going to get out of it ever.  She can’t go back to the schedule she had and raise her children (she’s pregnant with her second), and she will be pushing retirement age when her kids fly the coop.  
[/b]
Wouldn’t it make more sense to have flexible MBA programs, even at elite institutions, and flexible work schedules for junior employees who are in the throes of raising children, and then have mid-career employees taking on more of the demanding work?

It all just seems so backward.  [/quote]

PP here, this is absolutely spot-on IMO. I lost some really low-stakes years in my career when stepping back with a baby in my mid-20s. I would have lost high-stakes, high-earning years/political capital if I'd done the same in my mid-30s. There's no wrong way to do it per se but stepping away when you are more junior makes a lot of sense and is an underrated choice.[/quote]

Who raised your kids when you got your high stakes, senior position?[/quote]

DP.  They were raised.  I stepped back for about 15 years and went for that high level, senior position in my early forties.  [/quote]

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