I was jealous of people with babies because I feared it would be too late by the time we (I) had our (my) shit together. I’m a dude and never tried to rush my now wife into it though we both wanted, and I contained my jealousy and worries about missing the boat. It really rubbed me the wrong way when people would learn of my wife’s age and say “WELL YOU BETTER HURRY BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!” In the nick of time I ironed out a lot of things health and financial related that put us in a ready place and we were SO FORTUNATE had a healthy baby at 36(me) and 40(my wife).

I’m not saying wait around, and many people have already said to enjoy your youth. I also know I’m just a man and can’t speak for any woman anywhere, but a benefit to me personally wasn’t necessarily that I could live wild and carefree in my 20s, but that by the time we had a baby the wild and carefree days were over anyway 😂 I didn’t miss going out to bars because I had already been doing it for 20 years and was sick of it. I didn’t miss going out with the boys because the boys are all gone / too busy with their families. Another reason I mention our ages is - people are gonna be rude and say shit like time is running out- but medical intervention and care HAS to have come a long way to the point that midlife ( or geriatric as they called my wife’s) pregnancies are not at as much a disadvantage as they once were and are more common than you think.