Did You Forget to Have Kids?

Lords knows I hear mine ticking.

http://blogs.health.yahoo.com/experts/sexlevine/12020/tick-tock-of-the-biological-clock

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Love & Health
Tick-Tock of the Biological Clock
Posted by Deb Levine
on Wed, Mar 22, 2006, 7:54 pm PST
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Until recently, you could have been called a spinster or an old maid if you weren't married by the time you were thirty. These days, though, it's not unusual to hear of people getting married for the first time at 39, 40, and 50 years of age. A brief glance at the Sunday New York Times Wedding Announcements displays two to three couples each week in this boat.

Once upon a time, people married, had their kids and settled into family life by their early twenties, facing mid-life crisis - fast cars, affairs, and often divorce - by their early forties. In stark contrast, people today are choosing to spend their twenties and thirties focusing on their careers, friendships, and dating without commitment, and only later, in their mid-thirties and beyond, turning their attentions to the possibilities of starting a family.

According to the Centers for Disease Control's National Center for Health Statistics, the number of first births to women aged 35-39 reached an all-time high in the year 2000. Birth rates for women in their forties has also been consistently rising, reaching its record high in the same year.

Despite the statistics regarding the increase in infertility as women age, as well as the greater risk of bearing a child with Down's syndrome, many women are finding themselves in the situation of, "Oops. I forgot to have kids." It's not unusual for someone to get too busy or get stuck in comfortable relationship or simply wait it out, assuming that a family would come easily later on.

Women, how can you have everything? Turn the same ingenuity and creativity you applied to your career to the sometimes-considered-daunting task of finding a compatible mate and having kids. Instead of sitting around and waiting for reproductive technology to rescue you, sit down and figure out how to make the nuclear family part of your life work. Once you set your mind to it, it can all happen at the speed of light. Meet, marry, kids.

Do you know someone in this boat? Are you there yourself? Were you there a few years ago and want to offer some advice? Post it in the comments below.