Why does barely anyone my age have kids?

[Quietterry]

I’m 25 and had my first young so she’s 9 now and yes I was very young having her but I’m no longer a spring chicken and looking at my cohort who went to school with me out of 200+ people I can count on one hand who’s had kids.

Im not judging them for it I’m just curious on what changed when my mother was my age practically everyone she knew had kids by 25!

I know there’s different theories on this and they probably all have some merit but I’m leaning towards thinking it’s phones. I heard recently some people spend 8 hours a day on their phones.

I am starting to think this post is a wind up. Seems surreal.

I guess I count as middle class now, but I'm from a working class background.

I can think of two people who got married at 19 and only one of them got pregnant straight away.

I recall that one girl at our school got pregnant at 16 and that was highly unusual in a coalmining area in 1975.

The girl and her boyfriend got married. I remember that we girls were indignant that the girl was expelled; her boyfriend was allowed to stay on to the end of term so that he could sit his "O" Grades.

Talking to someone else ovy

So far as previous generations are concerned, my mum (born in the mid 1920s) was 35 when she had me; my maternal grandmother (also married to a miner) was 22 when she had her first and it wasn't a planned pregnancy.

Oh of course. I am not criticising having kids younger at all. I'm answering the OP query re why people don't have them sooner. It isn't unusual in my experience for the sort of people I describe. But there's nothing wrong with having kids sooner or doing other types of work. Every contributor is important

I haven’t read the whole thread - but I think contraception like the injection/implant has probably had a significant impact too. When I was in my teens/early 20s those that got pregnant young rarely planned it. Having contraception you don’t have to remember to take every day takes away the user-error element which often led to unplanned pregnancies.

Financial reasons and the fact that both mother and father need to be financially able to house, feed and educate a child for twenty years.
Thus, one's career needs to progress.

Not meeting a like minded person.

Then, due to young people not being able to financially afford to buy a home they deviate to have fun travelling, knowing that buying a home will mean sacrifice for many years.

They don't need to - consistant contraceptives.
Longer life spans - they will most likely not die in their 40s so can have children in their 30s and parent into their 50s.
Smaller families - Allowing enough time to complete one's desired family now takes only a few years.

It's not just that women are having children later, less women are having children at all - fertility rates are declining. We probably don't need to speculate about the reasons for this as there is extensive research available on both topics. From a quick google, it seems there's some evidence that mobile phone use has contributed to reduced teenage pregnancies https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/06/03/how-smartphone-use-is-linked-to-falling-birth-rates

It really depends on what circles you move in. I must be your mum’s age as I’m nearly 50. Not one of my friends had children before 30. Most were 35. None of us are grandparents, and none will be anytime soon. All professionals who did long degrees followed by long training programmes so very unlikely to have children by 25.

Not at all sure why phones have to do with it.