How old were you when you had kids?
How old were your parents when they had you? How old were your grandparents when they gave birth to your parents? Statistics show that with each new generation, the age of first-time parents increases. So chances are your grandparents were younger than your parents when they had them and that when this generation gives birth they will most likely be older first-time parents than their parents were.
Despite all the various "Teen Mom" and "16 and Pregnant" shows all over MTV for the last 10 years, “teen pregnancy has fallen by almost half since 2007” in the US according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This decrease is mostly in part to an increase in general sex education for the population and an increase in higher education for both men and women. More people are earning bachelors and master’s degrees and are then waiting until finishing school to start a family.
Younger generations also have more options than their parents had, not just in that of a career path but in the very option of birth control being more widely available. It’s also more acceptable today to be a 25-year-old who is unmarried and child free than it would have been to be those young women thirty years ago or more. The very idea of my word choice in that last sentence, saying “child-free” instead of childless is something that while minuscule in your reading would have probably not even been thought of a few generations ago (and I use that word because there is nothing I feel I am lacking at my age by not having children.)
In fact, for the first time in history, women who are having children later in their lives now (as of 2015) outnumbers women who give birth before age 20 according to CBS News. The increase in ability to give birth is also due in part to better medical technology allowing women to conceive well past the allotted years in previous generations. Nowadays it’s not out of the ordinary for a woman to give birth in her late 30s. The oldest mother to give birth was in 2005 to a 66-year old thanks to invitro fertilization.
And while the idea of having children in at an older age may be a scary thought to some, there are several benefits to conceiving later on in life. Statistics say the child will more likely be born to people who are more financially able to provide and often in a more stable relationship than they were when they were younger.
So while I don’t see myself being ready to have kids of my own anytime soon, I am however happy to spend time with friends and relatives with adorable little ones.
