Is 24 considered young to be a mum ?

[newmum10000000]

Or is this an average age?

They pass out when I tell them my age when I had a baby.

However in my extended family as long as you are an adult having a baby at any age you can conceive is normal.

You can have a baby at any age you want to. My PERSONAL view is that you should do lots of life first-so 24 is too young.

I'd love to know what this life is that people want to have before they have children? And why they find it hard to understand that the travelling and adventure can be done both with children and when they are grown up.
The drinking and partying didn't interest me when I was 18 let alone in my 20s.
So what is it I have missed out on?

I would find it young. But each to their own.
If you have the finances then great but many 24 year olds are still paying off student debts and getting their feet on a career path. Don't think very many would have the savings and income for a baby.

It’s both young and in my opinion too young, my eldest is 21 and I would be really sad if they had a baby in 3 years.

I had my first at 23. Have gone on to have two more DC and a very successful career and academically am ahead of nearly all my friends who didn't have kids until their late twenties

I think the main struggle for any parents today is the cost of childcare in order for it not to impact on your career. Most people need to earn well & have a partner that earns well to make it work.

I retrained after my 1st dc but would not have been able to afford to do that without dhs support.

I'd love to know what this life is that people want to have before they have children? And why they find it hard to understand that the travelling and adventure can be done both with children and when they are grown up.
The drinking and partying didn't interest me when I was 18 let alone in my 20s.
So what is it I have missed out on?

I don't think you missed out, it's ok to not be interested in certain things.
Travelling & adventure can be done with dc but for most people that involves money as it's more expensive during school holidays & you need to use annual leave to also cover holidays plus paying extra because there is more of you. For most people it's easier to travel & have adventure when you aren't tied to school etc.

Young if you went to uni to do a career I'd say. I had my eldest when I was 29 and I was amongst the first in my social circle. Everyone followed from 29 to about 35.

and many of todays young will struggle to be on the housing ladder at 24

@bathty and that's the irony, because we had our kids young when we were lower down in our careers our childcare was almost completely funded by tax credits, as they got to school age was around the time when we were surpassing the threshold and were then in position to buy a house. It was also when I was going into management which tied in perfectly with increased flexibility and the school years which can be trickier to juggle than pre school. It honestly worked out perfectly.

No

OK.
So the school holidays thing I get but as I am a teacher that was my only option even if I had waited.
In fact the only time we did have cheaper holidays was when I was a SAHM.
It's a circumstances thing again I suppose.

It's fairly normal age wise, yes many women are older now but physically it is the right time. I was 25, I've now got grown up kids and my life back when I'm still young enough to enjoy it

@leelaay when was this though? I've never qualified for benefits but in todays money I thought the amount you have to earn in order to qualify is very low? And buying a house today is obviously harder than the past & dependents do impact that.

Even though it's not for me I don't think there's anything wrong with having dc in your early 20s, I just understand why modern life has meant to age has pushed out.

the age

@Giacomettisrug For me it would also be the mindset & freedom to do exactly what I want rather than worrying/thinking about the dc. Certainly my holidays with & without dc were very different experiences.

Most of my friends had children in their mid 20's - we are all graduates. This average age is 29 is skewed by less teenage pregnancies than in the past

@bathty my youngest is 10 and the thresholds have not changed as far as I am aware, the childcare element when working is much higher than many people realise. I will concede we were able to live in cheap accommodation due to my husband's work but then we'd likely have been eligible for housing benefit back in those early years. Im not saying it would be sensible for everyone, but it really frustrates me the black and white approach to this discussion, just because having a child at a young age doesn't work for one, or even many women, doesn't mean it doesn't work for any. Not all young mums live in social housing with no career prospects, but that's what you'd assume is the inevitability from some of these replies.

Under 25 is young mum imo
To me a young mum is 16-19 or 20.
Above that is just being a mum.

I was 29 when we had our first, 38 when we had our second. Our eldest had her first child at 26.

I’d say it was young and wouldn’t be pleased f either of my DDs were pregnant at that age - if they had established careers and were married I may think differently

I think the obvious snobbery is proof that their way is not always the best way

If you are genuinely happy with your choices you don't need to spend so much time desperately proving others aren't. You don't need the obvious put downs to people who had DC young

It's also, I suspect, a load of crap.

I didn't have DC young. But I know plenty of people who had DC at 24 or younger, it's a perfectly reasonable age and all are doing well for themselves. It's an old trope that you won't be able to build a career if you have DC young, and not many people are going travelling in their late 20s.

I had my eldest at 25. At the time it felt like a normal age, many of my friends had DC around the same time and I'd been with DH since teens, we bought our first house at 20. But in my new area at school I'm definitely the youngest Mum. Knowing what I know now, my DS has sen and I have very little respite, I wish I'd waited until later in all honesty.

It's not particularly young but some may consider it to be. I had my first at 24 straight out of uni but all my friends have waited until now (30s) to start having babies now they are married/in established careers x

I had my first at 18 and my last at 40. I definitely had more energy at 18 and more life skills, knowledge and patience at 40. I don’t think any of my children had a better childhood than the other.

They all survived to adulthood with no complaints (that I know of) 😊