I guess my opinion is quite different. I just got married at 42, and the extra time for maturity and contentment was a good thing. I’d have given nothing but misery to a wife any earlier than 37. That said, my wife is significantly younger than me, and we’re planning for kids, and I’d be first to admit it will be harder to keep up with the demands of parenthood in this 40-something body.
I was 35 when the first was born and 40 when the second came. My wife is younger (considerably younger she would say but the birth certificate doesn’t lie unless maybe it’s from Hawaii).
People have kid when they’re supposed to. Had I married in my 20’s my wife would have been in school and I would married someone else who more than likely wouldn’t have been as great as my wife is. If we had had kids when we were younger they wouldn’t be the kids they are now. Maybe it would have been better, maybe it would have been worse, but we had them when we had them.
I wasn’t in a position where I could duck out of work to coach sports when I was younger, but chasing after them would have been easier. Of course I do sometimes look longingly at my brother-in-law and his wife who are empty nesters in their mid-40s, but I think the wife wouldn’t mind having another baby at her age either.