I knew I wanted kids from the age of 16 but I didn’t really think much of it until I was about 20/21 which was when I met DH. I had my first daughter at 24 (almost 25) and my son at 26. Then I had triplets () at 30. I am 33 (today!) and expecting twins due early-mid [name_u]December[/name_u].
I did start very young and I did feel lonely in the first few years as none of my friends were mothers but by the time I hit 28, we all re-connected, but I am very pleased that I had my daughter when I did and that I now have an amazing family!
I wanted kids when I was younger. That was the dream: get married, have kids, get a job, live a traditional life. I had a short phase there for a little bit where I wanted kids, too.
i think this will be interesting to look back on. I just graduated highschool but in a sense I feel emotionally ready to be a parent HOWEVER, academically my degree and job will take up a fair portion of my time for at least another 10 years. If that wasn’t a factor, I’d say I’d have adopted my first kid by 22, but with the kids in play, I reckon I’ll be late 20’s by the time it happens.
As a kid, I knew I always wanted to be a mother. I had fantasies of having this big family with 6 children. I laugh at that idea now! lol. I also wanted to be a parent very young, right out of college, but that didn’t happen. [name_f]My[/name_f] husband was 22 and I was 19 when we met and started dating. I always thought we’d move in together and get married and have kids immediately. It took us a while to get there, find good jobs, get a house and build ourselves up, both in a relationship and as our own people. We got married last year at 26 and 29, and in [name_u]December[/name_u] came off my BC to start trying. I’m glad life has worked out this way, we are financially stable, have good jobs, healthy support system with each other and friends and family, and are happy in our lives right now.
10 months later we are still here TTC. I would like to have our first child soon, within the next 1 or 2 years would be ideal, but sometimes fertility is out of your hands. Honestly I hoped I would have a 2020 baby but that didn’t happen. In my life now, I would love 2-4 children, but 3 feels right. I guess we will see what life brings us.
I’m just sixteen now but only thing that I can dream of is having family and kids (which is difficult because of me being overweight and scary haha). However, I hope to have my first little one in the age of 21-26.
I’ve never been a “kid” person, but neither was my mom and she’s always told me that having her own kids was a very different experience (and the best thing she ever did). So I haven’t always been sure if I wanted kids, but I truly opened up to it once I started dating my partner. He’s built to be a father and that instills a lot of confidence in me - I can handle up to 50% of the parenting responsibility but I was always worried about having kids with a partner that wouldn’t pull their own weight, ya know?
My mom had me at 32 and my brother at 34 (my dad was 30 and 32). I’ve always seen 30 as my ideal age to have my first (willing to start as early as 27 and hopefully no later than 32); however, I just turned 30 in [name_u]September[/name_u] and we are not ready to start TTC yet (but we are having serious discussions and trying to get all of our ducks in a row so we might start later this year if our career stars align).
I think I’m feeling a bit of extra pressure because of the 6 couples in our mutual friend group from Uni that started dating before us, 100% of them just had babies (5 born this year including BG twins). As of Decmber 13 when the newest was born, this is the first time there hasn’t been a pregnancy in the group since [name_u]Jan[/name_u] 2018 (as far as we know!). I am the youngest woman in our group though, and I’m pretty certain most of them will be having more so hopefully we’ll overlap at least a little with some of them. There are also 2 other couples (started dating after us), plus one singleton that don’t have kids yet and a decent chance some of them want kids as well. So I think we’ll fit in somewhere.
For anyone who’s curious, there’s been a LOT of girls so far - 6/8 babies!
I always knew I wanted kids – I can’t remember not wanting them, honestly.
But for me it really hinged on meeting the right right partner. I met my now husband when I was 27. We dated a little over a year, were engaged for a year, and started not not trying a couple months after the wedding. I’ll be a week or two shy of 30 when our baby is born.
I think we’re in a good place in our lives and careers and the timing is good. I would have been emotionally ready sooner as well, but the reason my husband work so well together is because of the life experiences we had before we met, so I don’t feel any time was wasted.
Super cool hearing your experience researching parental theory and child brain development. I can’t wait to start looking into that stuff, but feels a little premature as I won’t be trying for kids for 5+ years (in my current relationship).
Would you be open to sharing what you think were the most interesting ones/what you’ll be implementing?
I’ve wanted kids since before I could remember haha, I just always knew I would have them. I always thought 26 was a good age to have them, since that’s when my mum had me. However at 26 I wasn’t ready, but we are ttc now! If all goes according to plan I’ll be 28 and DH will be 30.
I’m 15, I want to have kids after marriage, so maybe around 23 or 24… I don’t know if that’s too early, my older sister had her son at 21, but I think that’s too young
I ideally would like to start having children at 28 or 29. But, I also want to travel the world and live abroad for a while, and I’d also would like to know my partner for 5+ years before having a child with them. In a perfect world, I’d start dating my OH at 23 and get married at 26, start trying for our first little one at 27 or 28, and have them by the time I’m 29! It seems young, but I have so much baby fever even now, and I would really love to have four or five children, so I need lots of time for that I think it’d be nice to be done having kids by 35 or 36, but I’ll have to see what life has in store for me. I love planning my future, so I’ve already looked into different parenting styles and settled on what one I will be following (not like there is a checklist lol), and things like that. However, mental health is super important to me, and I do struggle with it so I would like to focus on that for a while before having any kids to take care of!
I traveled the world in my 20s, made great friends, enjoyed life while living responsibly, saved money for a house I’d one day buy. Dated a few guys, but none were right. I believe a kid should have both a mom and a dad, so I had these amazing dreams of a big family, but with no husband on the horizon. He appeared one [name_f]April[/name_f], we were married 9 months later. Timeline as follows:
2015 married, bought 1st house
2016 adopted a dog (honed our parenting skills)
2017 baby boy born
2018 baby girl
2020 baby boy
2021 baby boy
2022 ttc
I will be 39 this month and would love to have started sooner, but it was probably best this way. I’m not sure the extra energy of youth would be worth the wisdom of age. Haha. Parenting well? [name_f]My[/name_f] help comes from the [name_m]Lord[/name_m].
I’ve always wanted to have a family, and growing up I figured I’d be a parent by at least age 25. I was engaged to my ex at 21, but we split just over a year later, and I reconnected with my now partner a few months later. I ended up going back to college at 24 for a change in career paths, and we began TTC as soon as I had a full-time position lined up in my field. It took us about 7-8 months to actually get there, but I’m due to have our first, a boy, in 10 days I’ll be turning 27 six weeks-ish after!
I didn’t know I wanted kids at all until I was in my late 20s, and I ended up having my first at 32. Rather than a specific age, it came down to being in the right stage of life for us - we waited till I finished my PhD and found a full time job so we weren’t living pay check to pay check anymore. Then we decided to try and see what happens - our fertility situation is complicated so we didn’t know if we could get pregnant at all, but we got extremely lucky and it ended up happening the second cycle after I stopped taking birth control. We felt very ready - we had been planning on having a baby a couple of years before we actually did so had plenty of time to obsessively research everything, haha. Also we were both mentally in a good place too.
If we have a second, it would ideally be around the time I turn 34 but we’ll see how that works out! Still all very hypothetical.
Edit: Hah, just noticed I posted in this thread already back in ‘20. I wish I had included a guess when we were going to have our first so I could now say whether I was right or not. I probably would have guessed that I’d have my first closer to 35, as I expected a much more complicated journey.
I got pregnant 4 months after writing this! I was indeed 32 when I had my first and now I don’t want more than 2 (maaybe 3) babies are hard work. Just for fun I’m going to predict I’ll be 34 with #2 and 36 with #3.
So this has changed a few times due to life hurdles such as grieving, DV, relationship ending, baby losses and just general annoyances of job drama. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t want at least 1 child.
At 14 with a boyfriend I had known since birth, I thought I’d start at 22 and finish having 5-8 by 38.
At 23 with a live-in boyfriend, I thought I’d start at 25 and have 3-5 by 35.
Now at 31, I plan to TTC in 9-24 months and have a child or 3 by 40.
Detailed
I had grown up basically since birth with a boy and when we were 12 we said we liked each other, when we were 14-ish we told each other we wanted to get married at 18 and start having children after university/college (which the longest would take 4 years so 22). And we’d stop at the latest 38 - 2-3 years in between each so 4-7, a freak accident took him at 15 and a half.
I did Technical college a.k.a TAFE in Australia (due to grades slipping I couldn’t get into university, TAFE - it’s not university standards but you are still educated for a slightly higher paying role that then with experience grants more benefits and pay-basically) and at 23 got into a relationship that was abusive, included a loss of a child in 2018, left the relationship in 2019. In late 2020 I met my partner and engaged in 2021, I’ve had 2 losses with my current partner and I am 31- so I am now unsure, I hope to have one by 40. If I don’t then the universe/God/whatever has chosen not to give this experience to me and I will love my bonus kids and my work allows interaction with kids so will enjoy that instead of.
) at 30. I am 33 (today!) and expecting twins due early-mid [name_u]December[/name_u].
I think it’d be nice to be done having kids by 35 or 36, but I’ll have to see what life has in store for me. I love planning my future, so I’ve already looked into different parenting styles and settled on what one I will be following (not like there is a checklist lol), and things like that. However, mental health is super important to me, and I do struggle with it so I would like to focus on that for a while before having any kids to take care of!
I probably would have guessed that I’d have my first closer to 35, as I expected a much more complicated journey.
babies are hard work. Just for fun I’m going to predict I’ll be 34 with