My youngest kid just turned 18 and all 3 will be in college next month. Made me think about the choice we made in having kids when we did. I’m interested in hearing how old you were when you had kids, and looking back whether or not you think it might have been better to have them earlier or later. If you don’t have kids, feel free to chime in about your parents or your friends’/relatives experiences.
My wife and I are now both 48. We were between 27-30 when we had our 3 kids in a 3.5 year span. We were just a couple of years out of law school. We got married and started having kids earlier than many of our friends, which was mildly inconvenient at times when friends still wanted to party hard. But that was not much of an inconvenience. As years went on we became more flexible as our kids aged, while our friends became more tied down with babies.
I am glad we had them when we were young and physically fit. And now I’m glad that we can start thinking about how we want to live the next 10-20 or more years with them (primarily) out of the house. My wife and I are in pretty decent shape and will be able to travel and otherwise spend money on ourselves as our friends were doing back in their 20s-30s.
It also sort of fit in well with our improving economic situation. At first we did not have much money and lived somewhat modestly, buying the kids used clothes and not going out much. Caused us to develop frugal habits. As our household income increased we were able to support various activities and purchases, tho were never able to be lavish. Some of my friends lived pretty high in their 20s. I can imaging it being tough going from a lifestyle where I basically served my personal wants, to cleaning up spit-up and spending money on childcare and diapers.
And we always had the need to balance our careers with our kids. I can imagine it being different to fit new kids into a demanding, established career.
Of course, not everything about family timing is entirely a choice.