When did you have a children

[Weddingexitement]

When did you feel ready to start a family? Did you feel ready in all ways?

How financially ready were you before trying?

we are just trying to plan but feel like we will never be financially ready

I was 25, he was 27. Owned a flat and been married 2-3 years. Surprise baby but I’d been ready forever so all good. Think household income was around £65k, this was in London 10 years ago!

28 and 30 married couple of years - met 18 and 20 at Uni knew we wanted kids together.

We had 53 K saved up for house deposit - added another 3 K over years bought in completed different area and job but matched job and house affordability in time for school applications - money was so tighter than we ever expected. Many jobs since and couple of moves - so nowhere near where pfb was born.

I don't think there's a perfect time - as much stability as you can as young as you can manage (so there time to build saving up before retirement years) - and life can still throw you curve balls.

Had my first (planned) baby just after my 23rd birthday, my second at 26.
We owned our home and I'm glad I didn't wait until I was older.

I was 22 and dh was 25. We wanted dc sooner rather than later because I loved that dh knew some of his great grandparents and I wanted that for my dc. Also there was always going to be a high chance of our dc having autism so I didn't want to increase that chance by having dc later. It was hard at first and we didn't have a car until ds1 was 18 months because we couldn't afford one but our financial situation got better as we got older.

33 and 36. Owned our own home, good joint income and enough space. I knew I wanted children but the lifestyle change was a shock.

I was 25 when my son was born and 24 when I got pregnant. I had recently got married and bought a house with my husband. I would say I was financially ready because my husband earns enough for me to be a SAHM. If we relied on my income as well I would have had to wait until I'd progressed more in my career.

27 for me - we bought a house together 3 years before that and had been married 2 years
We also wanted 2 dc before 30 which worked out

We were 33, married, owned a property each. Had bugger all savings as we had travelled a lot and enjoyed life. We knew we could sell both properties and buy a family home, which we did with a 40% deposit meaning I could take a few years off work to have kids and be at home with them. We never had to pay for any childcare.

Looking back we made some flukey choices at a time when the market was favourable. We were lucky rather than wise!

Felt ready at 30.

I had my first at 31 and second last month at 33.

I am married, we'd owned our own home (mortgaged) for 5 years by then and settled in our jobs and careers

We were both 22. Had only got married at 21 and weren't actually hugely financially stable or felt ready to have children at all but we wanted to just have one and be done at an early age but ended up with a twin pregnancy! Was quite difficult for me but I got help and by the time they were 3 months, I genuinely loved being a mother so much more than I'd thought. We got much more lucky regarding jobs and housing and our general financial situation massively improved. Decided we wanted a 3rd and our son was born when we were 25. We'd bought a house by this point. We were really happy with 3 but felt we could support a 4th which was why we had what we thought would be our final child when we were 28. But that's not how things worked out because I had a complete surprise pregnancy when I was 31 and we did debate whether to go through with it but ended up doing so and do not regret it at all! Now I'm 37 and couldn't be happier really. 😊

Wouldn’t say was ready per se- was more of a matter of 20-30 yrs down the line what would I regret more- having a child or not having one. My cut off age for me personally was 40 and I was near that. Gave birth a month before 39.
was married with lots of financial security. I was raised by a single mom who struggled and I knew I wouldn’t put a child through a financially insecure childhood.

We were young (I was 25), but we had our own 3 bed house, a car, both worked full time in very stable jobs and had been together for 7 years. First pregnancy was a surprise but not unwanted. If we had waited, I'm not sure what we would have been waiting for.

We were 35 and 39 for our first child. We were married and owned our house (with mortgage).

financially we knew we’d never have kids if we waited until we were completely stable. We had debts. But we both had secure jobs and could scrape through maternity leave - just!

we waited 4 years between children as we couldn’t afford 2 lots of childcare. Even with 30 hours funded it still cost a lot each month for f/t nursery. Once dd was about to start school we had DS.

Started TTC when both 31 but then discovered I had PCOS and needed clomid to get pregnant.

As a result it took till I was 34 for DS and 38 for DD

Plus 2 miscarriages

If we had waited until everything was perfect we would probably never have had children . So I'm very happy we had them when we did
It's never a perfect time. We had been married a couple of years and had our own homebbutbit was small. We both had jobs but were not particularly well paid.

I was 20 in university. All worked out though

26 with DC1 and 28 with DC2 (29 and 32 for DH)

First time around we were engaged and had just bought a house when we found out (very much not planned). Got married a few months before he was born. Both in ‘professional’ jobs although nothing spectacular salary-wise. We were as ready as you ever can be.

We had a few years where things were financially tight but it was always manageable. They are 6 and 4 now and we are finally a bit more comfortable financially. I don’t feel being older would have put us in a better position really.

I’m 30 and DP is 37, we’ve been together 11 years and are expecting our first in December. We’ve had such a lovely time just the two of us (plus three cats and a dog!) and are excited to expand our family. Engaged for the past six years but shit has happened every year during that time meaning wedding planning has been pushed aside. We will probably marry in a small ceremony sometime after I go back to work. We have good careers and combined income, live comfortably in a mortgaged house and are as financially ‘ready’ as we’ll ever be in that we have no debt (apart from my student loan, which is very manageable) and have saved up to supplement my maternity pay.

Are we ready though? Not at all, but I don’t think anyone is until their baby is actually born! We have a real ‘village’ around us though, and are very lucky and grateful for that.

I was 23 with my first. I was married and owned a house. I worked in banking but left to be a SAHM. My husband has his own business. I’m glad I was a bit younger when having children. My friends had children at the same age so had lots of mum friends. I’m now 42 and my youngest is nearly 17.

33 for first. Do I wish we'd started earlier? Not really.... but 40 for 3rd child was pushing it a bit. Think about your age at last child.

Same here. I got significantly more disabled through my 20s. It worked out perfect for us to have kids young. I'm 34 and my eldest will be 13 in a few weeks

I got married at the age of 23. Started to try to get PG at 26. Had a history of miscarriages (8) 3 after 20 weeks. Finally got PG aged 32. Decided not to put myself through more heartbreak with potential miscarriages & happy to have the one DS.

You can't plan for every eventuality. We were married for a year, both working full time when we decided to go for it. I was 29 when dd1 was born, we fell pregnant within the first month. Ds was born when I was 30 and dd2 when I was 34.

I was 21 with 1st & 25 with 2nd and actually had a mortgage. Can't believe did all this so young.
Divorced eventually and now re married .