Personally, I want to have finished having children by the time I'm 35, as does DF so it'll probably be at about 31 that I'll stop as he's 4 years older than me!
But that doesn't necessarily mean that that's how I'll think when I reach that age. I'm 20 at the moment, turning 21 in June, and feel that I'm emotionally ready to start trying to have children. However, we're not doing too well financially at the moment and we're not married yet. We want to get financially stable and be married before we start actively trying. To be honest, I feel that it's the way we've stuck together and been as happy as we possibly could be and coped living on benefits and my student loan for the past 6 months that has shown me that I can cope with difficult situations. It doesn't matter how old you are, I just don't think it's possible to know how difficult raising a child can be without actually having one. There are 'good' and 'bad' mothers at any age, although I wouldn't condone teenage pregnancy for some people it happens and they can deal with it ok. I personally want to wait until we can support ourselves as I'm sick of having to ask for help from our parents, even though I know that the wait will be hell, as I don't think supporting a family whilst on benefits is a good idea. Hopefully we'll be able to start trying after we get married April next year but if we're still struggling money wise then we'll have to wait longer.
I don't think there's an ideal age to start having children but I don't think you should wait until you're drawing a pension to have baby number 1.
Beca :wave:
I personally see nothing wrong with people in their 40's and 50's having children. My mom adopted a baby at 45. You cannot put an age limit on it.
