being a mom
Having A Kid Before 25 Sounds About As Fun As A Kick In The Vag To Me
Ermahgerd. There are times when I see an interesting tidbit of research or an unreasonably controversial poll, like this here Gallup poll, that makes me want to roll my eyes and get out the popcorn to see all the cray-cray fights that are sure to ensue.
Ready? A recent Gallup poll of 5100 adults confirmed that Americans consider 25 or younger to be the ideal age for a woman to have her first child. Before I poke the bear on this one, I’ll throw in my personal story so that you can see where I’m coming from.
I had my first son when I was 28 and my second son when I was 29. (I know, I know, 16 months apart – eep!) But now the baby factory is closed forever, thanks to a beautiful medical breakthrough that I like to call the vasectomy.
I managed to get my child rearing done rapid-fire, which finished my pregnancy chapter before I hit 30. It wasn’t necessarily planned that way, but I do hear through the grapevine (Facebook) that tons of women want to have a kid by the time they’re 30, like some kind of self-imposed deadline.
The only reason my husband and I decided to have kids at 28 was purely because of money. We got married when we were 26, which I hilariously thought was “old” at the time. A lot of my bias about marrying age had to do with the fact that I grew up in a religious family. There really was a joke that circulated when I was younger about women going to church to get their “MRS degree” (or, get wifed up).
Thankfully, no God-fearing holy roller was interested in me at the time, or I probably would have gotten married right away. Because it’s what I thought I should do.
Fast-forward a few years, and my pendulum swung in the opposite direction. (No surprise there!) I was partying and dating douche bags in my early 20s. I would have hitched my wagon to almost any douche that gave me a second glance (as many insecure twenty-somethings are prone to do). Thankfully, once again, no douche was interested enough in me to “put a ring on it.”
