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Even as young children, we tend to give some fantastical thought as to when we’ll have kids of our own. I think most of us like to think we’ll be really young mothers, and think that we’ll probably have a baby when we’re about 20.
But as we hit our twenties, it becomes apparent that this is almost impossible, unless we have a partner that earns a lot of money to support you while you’re out of work. It’s also incredibly difficult to get back into work once you’ve taken time off to look after a baby. This can affect you in two ways – when you’ve finished your maternity leave, there is a strong likelihood that you will have adjusted to life at home that working just doesn’t suit you any more.
It can be really hard work to get back into the swing of life at the office, and also the costs for childcare can be very steep. The other bad way it can affect you is that if you do decide to go back to work, say 4 years later when your child is in school, employers can be reluctant to employ you because it can give the impression that you don’t care for your career and won’t take the job very seriously, or that you’re just desperate to take any job. Of course, this won’t be the case everywhere, but it is something to bear in mind, should you ever decide to take a long break from working to raise your child.
It’s a sad thing that more and more women are deciding to delay having a child so that it won’t get in the way of their careers. If you’re really happy at work, then that’s fair enough. But for women who are unhappy at work and feel they have to sacrifice a family home life for their work, it must be very frustrating. Also, the longer you leave it, the greater the chance that your baby will be not as healthy – the risk of Down’s Syndrome increases quickly as you go past the age of 35.
This is because we are actually born with all the eggs we need which get depleted one by one once we start our periods. The last few years worth of eggs are less like to be completely healthy, so it’s usually best to have a child before the age of 35, and preferably before 30. You should also review the impact that being an older parent has on your child. Think about how old you will actually be by the time your child is 18, and how much less time you may potentially get to spend with your offspring. A young person neither have to deal with others taking the mickey about your being an older parent, or have to deal with the grief of your passing, so think this through before deciding to delay childbirth until later in life.
Baby Nest retails baby equipment and pushchairs such as Quinny pushchairs
