To have another baby/babies now

[MumoftheBoyandtheGirl]

To cut a long story short; my daughter is 19 and my son is 15. I’m 37 and am thinking about having another couple of babies. I know this might sound flippant but I obviously mean if nature is willing. I have been married almost 15 years and part of us is thinking that in 3 years we are more free to follow our dreams.

However another feeling we have is now that we are better off we could have more children to enrich our lives as we had our other children so young. I’m worried about being an older mother and the fact I could need to have more medical involvement as my first two were delivered with minimal assistance. Is this just my hormones or shall I (we) follow our heart.

I guess we’re on the brink of grandchildren, is that enough? I’m confused? xx

Can I just say.... why do people think kids and travel aren’t compatible? My son has been to loads of different countries. We do it on a budget too :). I intend to spend at least a month of my maternity leave travelling just like I did with my son. He’d been to Germany, Italy, Belgium and France by the time he was 3 months. This time I’m thinking taking the ferry round to bottom of Spain and move up. Or possibly down through to Greece.

He was roaming small caves with us at 4 and kayaking whilst a toddler. You have to allow for them being little but to me I find my joy in sharing hobbies and travel with my son and hopefully the next one should the ttc be successful.

That’s interesting fountain

There’s definitely a socioeconomic aspect collating to the average age of a first baby. Put bluntly, my mother was a very beautiful woman in her heyday, and my dad was drawn to her looks. However, she is from a large family that I suppose you would call the underclass. She had me at 35 due to fertility problems and they were shocked and appalled that anyone so old would try for a child

However, my dads side of the family are shocked when anyone under the age of 30 gets pregnant.

Bit baffled by the assumption that children stop you travelling. Children make travelling amazing! We've taken DD to all the lovely European capitals, to Iceland, India, Kenya, Florida, Canada, Cuba. Looking at Australia. What limits us is time off work, and having to save, not having a DD. None of this would have been half as much fun without her. She is a huge part of WHY we push ourselves to travel. I think when she's grown and gone DH and I will probably not be arsed to go any further than the Cotswolds or something. It's only the first few baby years that make travelling with kids a ballache. OK we're not backpacking, but we wouldn't be doing that anyway.

Karigan1

Several reasons.
Finance for one.

You have mentioned some fairly "safe" destinations.

I like exotic travel. I have been to many places I would not take a child to. Sometimes when travelling there is unpleasantness, arriving in Singapore harbour at 1am with no hotel booked. We survived, we are adults. Some places require malaria tablets to be taken, some have poor sanitation or other health hazards.
I have slept in bus stations, missed lunch.

Some of the discomfort of travelling would make life with a 4 year old hard.

Plus some of my activities are adult. Sipping gin cocktails, late night parties, shagging on the beach.

37 is not that old, many women have children then. And about the comment "what if you die" - life expectancy in the UK is not 45, FFS!

Our youngest finally left home 3 years ago. Life now is brilliant, we go out without having to organise anything, we can just go to the pub quiz on the spur of the moment without thinking about someone’s dinner. We go away overnight with no guilt and no worry. The house stays tidy, washing, shopping etc have dramatically decreased . Lazy Sundays are just that.

I always wanted to have a second family when my youngest reached 12/13 and I did have my coil removed for a while when I was 40.

Hopefully you can be looking forward to becoming grandparents one day in the not too distant future. You’ve heard the expression “grandkids are even better than having your own as you get to give them back at the end of the day”

It’s your decision, but I’m loving life now the family have grown up.

If it is really what you want, go for it. However you could give some young children a great start in life by going down the fostering or adoption route instead. Sounds as if your situation would be perfect to support a sibling pair which could change their life outcomes.