How many people around here come from a family of late breeders. My grand parents were born 1895,1898,1902,1905; their first kids at at 33-43 years old, and all my aunts and uncles we after my parents
My parents were born in 1938.
And had my sister in 73, and me in 1974, so their kids were at 35 and 36.
My sister is married at 31 with no plans for kids for at least 5 years. I am not married, no kids, and if either happen I don’t expect it for 5 years at least either.
It always hits me strange when I hear one of my 30ish freinds talking about their great-great grand Parents still alive. One of my grandmas was the 16th living kid(They don’t now how many others died in childbirth because it was a habit of some Germans-from-Russia not to name a kid until it got around one year old, since so many died)kid, and her father was a 13th living kid. All My great great grandparents were most likely all born before 1840, and my mom’s mom’s dad’s dad was possibly born in the 1700’s.
In fact I asked my grandma, and no one in the family to her knowledge met their grandpa. Anybody else here have a late-breeding family history?
Wow, that’s admirable to be able to wait so long and still have kids!! I keep hearing horror stories that it gets difficult for SOME women to have kids in their late 30’s and up. Heck, I even heard of a study that said after 28 the eggs in the ovaries are getting “over the hill”…LOL!!
Not to mention how hard pregnancy is on the body to begin with (for some women…like me…I’ve had 3) with the increased blood flow and numerous possible complications.
I also hear how women have kids from their twenties into their forties…but the study did say it’s a little easier if you’ve already had kids.
All that said, i don’t imagine there are a tons and tons of people who are late breeders…but I’m curious to hear about it!!
Here’s a little more on the subject if you’re curious
It’s interesting sometimes to see the differences.
My family on both sides have all procreated when they are in their mid to late-30’s. Mr Goo’s side have all procreated when they are in their early 20’s. Makes things interesting when your parents are much closer in age to your partners grandparents. Different experiences, different timescales, different expectations of grandparents abilities, etc.
Depending how you define it, we have late children all over the family tree. Mrs. Kunilou was 37 when the twins were born. The really startling fact is that Mrs. Kunilou is 18 years older than her baby brother. There’s a similar difference between the oldest and youngest in both my mother and father’s families.
My family is not particularly late-breeding–though my younger sister is 14 years younger than I am–but as a teen (I’m 29) I knew a man whose father was in the Civil War. The father joined up at about 12, and then had children right up into his 70’s–and I knew one of his youngest sons, who was then in his 70’s. Now that is late breeding.
From what I hear, my father’s mother did not marry until she was nearly 40. Everyone said she would never be able to have children, and if she did, she would never survive it. This was in the early part of the 20th century, BTW. She not only had a child (my father), she had three. And survived until a quite old age.
OTOH, my older sister, who just turned 60, is about to become a great grandmother. She had her first child at 20; that child did the same, and now there is about to be another generation.
There’s a number of major age gaps in my family – my maternal grandfather was born in 1905, married my grandmother in 1932, and their first (stillborn) child wasn’t born until 1945. Everyone told them they’d never have more children, but they went on to produce four daughters, the youngest being my mother in 1952.
Mom was 18 when she had my half-brother in 1970, and waited 14 years before having me in 1984. Growing up, people always assumed my brother was my father because of the age difference.
But that’s not the most impressive distance. My grandfather also had an illegitimate daughter in 1971, and she in turn had a daughter of her own in 1999. So my littlest cousin April, who is now 4, has a maternal grandfather who would be 98 if he were still alive!
I come from a long line of “late in life” babies – they think they’re done having all their children, and then surprise, one more comes along. My grandparents all had died before I was born; the last living one died 21 years before my birth. My great grandparents on one side were born during the US Civil War, and I’m in my 20s.
Actually, my family has a history of breeding early, late and often.