Replies

And not just sanity issues. I think a person really ought to consider how long they will be around for their kid's lives.

I got started late in life with the kids and it has limited the number I had originally planned to have. I would like to be around for them if possible. Yes, I know, even young parents die, but let's face it, the risk increases with age.

I had a friend in college whose Dad was 76 years old. Now, my parents had me late in life also but that is getting a little bit on the edge. He was already put in the position of elder care and he wasn't even out of college yet. Talk about being in the sandwich generation when you have kids of your own.

My dad was 49 when I was born. He was born in 1898.

My mom was 42. Born in 1905, before Oklahoma was made a State.

Dad died when I was 19. Emphasema and enlarged heart.

Mom died, in my arms, when I was 35. Cancer.

I'm 55 and dearly love my 2 year old granddaughter. But, I would never assume to live long enough to see her fully grown.

A hundred+ years ago, women's life expectancy was much, much lower than it is now, especially when they were bearing children nearly non-stop without beneift of modern medicine, antibiotics, etc. But nobody thought there was anything wrong with a woman in her mid-40s, and very poor health, having yet another baby, even though she wasn't likely to live past 50.

Nowadays, if a perfectly healthy woman wants to have a career for a couple of decades, and then have a couple of children in her early 50s, when her life expectancy suggests she'll almost certainly see them through college, everybody starts starts wringing their hands.

The trend towards medically assisted late child-bearing is coinciding with a trend of abandoning the you-can-have-it-all-at-once myth. Professional women increasingly understand that children need to be raised in their own homes, by their own mothers, and having the children AFTER the career is a way of doing justice to both. It's not for everybody, but I see no reason to condemn it.