It used to be that you were expected to be a full-fledged adult at 18 and entirely responsible for your own decisions.
Having a child at a young age is not necessary a bad thing if both mother and father are committed to supporting each other and raising the child properly. Preferably they should be married, as that will properly bond the family (and the parental commitments).
My wife and I had children at a relatively young age. She gave up her career and I got a higher paying job. Even so, things were tight financially for quite some time. But so what? Babies don't care how much their parents earn, or how fancy a car they drive. They just need to be taken care of and we were able to do that easily while pinching pennies. It meant a lot of nights at home eating macaroni & cheese for us, but we managed just fine.
By the time I was 50, my children were grown up and out on their own. We've been empty nesters for over 10 years now and we are still young enough to live life fully. So there is a benefit to having children early in life.
I totally agree. I think it’s how you raise your children, not age. Although I was 29 when I had my first child and 39 when I had my last. 4 kids same wife. Lol. We did have a few miscarriages in there. My son married at 22 and has two children. So I still became a relatively young grandpa at 51. Fun life but not easy. It’s not supposed to be.
I don’t disagree that it’s possible to commit to another and have children at a younger age. It happens every day.
But, I also see immature 18 year olds making babies and not committing to them. In those cases it is the single biggest factor to living a life of poverty and under achieving.
The involvement and support of the grandparents is essential as well. Again, in a vast majority of these cases the grandparents are single parent, under achieving households.
Obviously there are “success” stories and I applaud them. But the odds are not good for the average 18 year old parents.