Is fertility more higher when we are at a less mature age?

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chris1989
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30 Oct 2024, 10:02 am

I don't want come across that everyone in for example, their early 20s are less mature but I can't work out why it seems the "ideal" time to have kids when I seem to think it's maybe better 25 and over to deal with having and raising children when people start maturing more.

My dad's mum and dad had him I think when they were at the time were both 22 and were already married at that time in 1961. My dad and mum didn't have me until their late 20s. When I was 22, the thought of having kids never came to mind and I wasn't really in a relationship at the time either. I still didn't come to mind even at 32. I seem more social and confident in doing things that maybe test my anxiety than I did at 22. But I feel "bad" as though I should have done these things earlier than in the 30s. I have heard also from women who had their kids in their early 20s and explained how it allowed them to grow up with their kids and travelling and things like that with them. There seems more people of my generation and younger wanting to spend more time on careers, travelling to multiple countries etc and I also remember a guy saying that some of the best holidays I ever had were with my kids and until you have them you don't know how marvelous it is. I don't know if also generations today have more choices in life now than other generations had.

I hear stories about fertility and birth rates dropping in parts of the world and people choosing to delaying having families and focusing on careers. I remember talking with mum last night about it and can't work why it's been spoken about now when apparently it was something that maybe started less than 50 years ago. I did feel at one point is it the fault of my generation (millennials) that it's happening when it probably isn't. I know some people the generation above me (Gen Xers) who had no children like my uncle, who is now happily married to someone who has kids.



techstepgenr8tion
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31 Oct 2024, 9:55 pm

Fertility being at peak in late teens / early 20's is a biology / genetics thing. The need to get a masters, PhD, or MD to be able to afford having a kid or at the very least needing to wait until you're established - like late 20's or early 30's - says a lot more about the environment and that we're hitting constraints to where things are too expensive or labor, spaces, costs, and the cultural social venue are collectively too demanding. What this suggests is that our current environment is at significant variance with the ones we've evolved for. IMHO this mostly has to do with massive government spending and in many cases mismanagement of the debts and our currencies. We've also had a wave of assault from social media where social predators have had much farther reach and people are trusting each other a lot less - which also makes dating and pair-bonding incredibly difficult.


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