- 2,037
- Colorado
That's exactly it, unfortunately. I have many friends having kids around 25-27 and the kids are healthy. However I have many married friends who went to college and have a good background and experience yet can't get the income necessary to have kids 100% without outside assistance. They desperately want kids but know it's financially irresponsible for the family unit to just have them without a good financial base and job security. In the current economy here, people just aren't getting raises and promotions like they used to, especially for people under 30, thus forcing couples to wait later and later until it's financially responsible to have kids. My ex and I were rolling in money when we graduated college and got corporate careers so we talked kids a lot, but just didn't want them yet. But here I am five years later unemployed and looking for ANY job that can cover my standard of living (which isn't high, just basic bills for a single man). If I had kids right now I'd be losing my mind.A first child at 45 is extremely dangerous.
But if you've had children before, it can be done.
And yes, having children later in life increases the chances of those kids having genetic abnormalities like Autism and Down's Syndrome.
But there's no absolute cut-off. If you want to ignore all chances of that, you'll have several kids from the age of sixteen on through 21 and then tie your tubes off there.
In this kind of economy, that's suicide. Or welfare.
And the risk increases, but the overall risk remains small. Saying you should stop having kids at 30 because of that risk is like saying you should stop jogging at 40 for fear of sudden heart attacks.