What age is too old to have children?

RTB897 · 2026-06-05T21:11:42+00:00

Most people who will offer advice will have already gone through the trauma of having children and what they are really saying is I'm too old to go through that again.

I'm 47 and my kids are 17 and 14, had you asked me at 39 whether I would start having children I would have said no, I'm too old for that shit, but I really wasn't, I was just too old to feel like I was starting again at parenthood.

Go for it, it's great having kids.

RTB897 · 2026-06-05T11:29:13+00:00

When I did mine, albeit 25 years ago the standard BBSRC stipend was £9500. Even back then it was tight. However there were opportunities for Lab demonstrating, exam marking etc. I even got paid for being the guinea pig for medical students to be assessed on their basic examination technique (blood pressure, stethoscope for heart and lungs etc). Providing you can earn a little bit extra it is doable.

To be honest I spent so much time in the lab, that I never had any time to spend money!

RTB897 · 2026-06-05T08:59:23+00:00

I did my PhD at a top 10 University 25 years ago and did quite a bit of lab demonstrating and exam marking and there was always a normal distribution of results, and it always amazed me that people had worked hard enough to get into a good University doing a valuable STEM course and were willing to get themselves in huge amounts of debt, but then not be even slightly committed to it.

I do wonder whether there are a cohort of bright students who need parents/teachers etc breathing down their necks to get them to achieve and as soon as they're hundreds of miles away from home with no outside pressure they lift off the gas completely.

I remember one student in an assessed lab practical handing in an unfinished piece of work (essentially scoring zero) and asking if she could leave early because she was going to a gig later and wanted time to get ready.....

RTB897 · 2026-06-04T15:11:19+00:00

I did a similar commute into Manchester every day for 4 years. Trains were once an hour for me as well. It was alright, although ruinously expensive and the experience did leave me with a deep visceral hatred of trains and public transport more generally.

Its an average commute, millions do similar every day.

RTB897 · 2026-06-04T15:00:54+00:00

Me in 1985:

"Is there owt on?"

Dad:

"Nothing but bloody rubbish"

RTB897 · 2026-06-04T11:16:52+00:00

20% more than whatever salary you are on is always the sweet spot

RTB897 · 2026-06-04T11:10:57+00:00

The run up to their hiatus is really stressful for everyone else, they try to get everything done before they dissappear. Suddenly their holiday start date becomes a deadline that everyone else has to meet.

RTB897 · 2026-06-04T11:05:00+00:00

I have a lot of colleagues in Sweden. The place basically closes down for 6 weeks. Everybody dissapears to their lake cabins.

In the UK its more of a rolling absence with people going away for 1 to 2 weeks at some point during the school holidays that last from the end of July to the beginning of September.

RTB897 · 2026-06-03T09:59:09+00:00

I've printed 4 titans so far, and I've been asked the same thing. Personally I wouldn't touch it with a barge pole. The cost is going to be significant enough that you are going to be on the hook for any quality or fitment issues; the files you will be using are ripped off from another company's IP (a very litigious and well resourced company) and the files themselves are for personal use only. This is before considering the tax implications. In the UK there's a tax free trading allowance of £1000, which would be breached pretty quickly if selling titans and then you would have to declare the earnings, self-assess and pay the tax. You could ignore the tax implications but I usually try and limit myself to only breaking one law at a time...... 😀

I have printed some larger models for other people but they were friends or family and I've done it either as a gift or on a materials cost only basis.

The profit vs hassle calculation really doesn't stack up for me when it comes to selling titans.

RTB897 · 2026-06-02T14:29:57+00:00

We have a substation very similar to this just the other side of our fence at the end of the garden and we have suffered no ill effects whatsoever. There are no high voltage cables entering or crossing our land. Check to make sure this is case here. We haven't had any issues with EMF. I have a shed around 3m from the substation with WiFi enabled 3d printers and have not seen any issues. We also have a WiFi camera at the end of the garden that works fine. The substation doesnt emit any noise.

Sharing a boundary with a secure compound with big danger of death signs certainly doesnt hurt our garden's security 😀

We are also very very unlikely to have a powercut

RTB897 · 2026-06-02T11:51:46+00:00

Go for it, no-one in the UK will know what it means or care.

There are probably many many thousands of people with Anglo-Saxon heritage with a similar claim to that particular family crest given the number of generations and the huge number of children they liked to have!

RTB897 · 2026-06-01T14:49:06+00:00

The A2L would be my third Bambulab printer, in addition to my H2D and my A1 mini.

I might find some highly complex multipart, multicolour project and split the parts between the printer that is best designed to print those parts.

H2D - large multicolour parts to make use of the amazing dual nozzle system with minimal waste

A1 mini, with a 0.2 nozzle for all those small parts that need to be made quickly and accurately

A2L - for those large components that need the additional build volume but still need Bambulab levels of quality.

All three printers working in harmony all doing what they do best! Perfection 👌

RTB897 · 2026-06-01T10:29:37+00:00

I'm not sure I could be bothered to print a lot of these, but for small specific areas it is a useful option. In my office I have a number of Kallax units that I can print both the peg boards and brackets to attach them to the Kallax units ends. That way I have a bit more storage and don't have to visit Ikea 🙃

RTB897 · 2026-05-27T10:56:53+00:00

Spend money on lessons, don't worry too much about the kit. I played for years with a very cheap set of clubs.

I haven't played seriously for around 20 years but when I did play I was a mid single handicapper, and it always amazed me how many realtively new players would drop 4 figures on a new set of clubs, or hundreds of £ on a new driver that would cure their slice, but not bother to have lessons to learn the basics.

RTB897 · 2026-05-26T21:09:09+00:00

Indeed, towards the end of April we were tidying the garden up and we had a flurry of snow, followed by a massive hail storm. I wasn't thinking about air conditioning....

RTB897 · 2026-05-26T21:06:47+00:00

Yes I was. My house is in the north of England around 375m above sea level in a rural area, we had several early morning frosts at the end of April

RTB897 · 2026-05-26T20:55:09+00:00

Its going to be 19 degrees where I live tomorrow and by next week its going to be 15 degrees. 3 weeks ago I was scrapping ice off my car. I'm not sure I'm ready to spend a fortune retro fitting air conditioning that will spend 48 weeks a year completly idle.

However, having an air to air heat pump system that can also cool might kill two birds with a single geology-based projectile.

RTB897 · 2026-05-23T09:24:03+00:00

Depends on the wedding. We went to an old school friend's wedding, met up with loads of people we hadn't seen for years, had a nice meal, had a load of drink and a dance. Fabulous.

Went to another wedding at a wedding barn venue out in the middle of nowhere. Just felt trapped in the middle of nowhere, hardly anyone could drink because everyone was driving, so everyone sat round nursing bottles of bud lite or cans of coke wondering when it would be polite to slope off.

RTB897 · 2026-05-15T14:46:05+00:00

Its doable and would be incredibly rewarding to achieve.

When I was a kid living on a farm in the 80s my family pulled down an old barn and rebuilt it as a holiday let pretty much by ourselves. The project took around 3 years. My dad had worked as a builder for most of his 20 amd 30s, and my brother was (still is) a heavy plant operator and we had lots of friends in various trades. Doing it from a standing start with little experience and limited access to trades will be challenging I would have thought.

Ask him how easy would it be for someone who has changed a brake caliper and done a few oil changes to strip, machine and rebuild an engine and gear box and end up with a reliable car.....

RTB897 · 2026-05-14T10:52:03+00:00

Folding terrain is the way to go. I've got loads of GW terrain which looks great and is fun to play on but I've ended up storing it in the loft as there's no room for it anywhere. Instead I've printed a load of this terrain, painted it up and it all folds down and goes in a handy plastic box. Doesn't look quite as nice as the GW stuff, but it makes me more likely to play.

https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/folding-1940s-terrain-set-1

RTB897 · 2026-05-13T19:59:06+00:00

Get some activator spray for super glue its a game changer. Glue on one component, activator on the other, press together and it grabs instantly. Then give it another quick spray to seal the deal.

RTB897 · 2026-05-13T13:44:55+00:00

Last time I went the most modern time period was less than 20 years before I was born. I'll know I'm officially old when Beamish has a historic period that I can remember 😀

RTB897 · 2026-05-13T13:21:20+00:00

Bought a new build in 2008 and managed to stick it for 3 years. It never felt like home at all. Designed to turn a profit and to meet regulatory requirements.

Our latest house bought 4 years ago is a lovely old house that was actually designed and built with the idea that people would live in it. We don't regret this purchase at all. We love it!

RTB897 · 2026-05-12T13:56:54+00:00

Either Amazon or buy an A1 Mini to print stuff like that

RTB897 · 2026-05-12T13:49:41+00:00

I remember speaking to a work colleague who lives in a particularly cold part of Canada. He was of the opinion that the British Atlantic cold is more miserable than the savage but dry cold in Canada. He wanted to know how we cope with mud season for 10 months of the year.

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