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The Age Old Question

A couple of friends and I recently found ourselves debating the question of just how old is too old?

When I think back to being a child and my hopes and dreams for the future, having a child in my late 30's was definitely out of the question.  But as the years went by, the opportunities have been numerous, but they never felt right. It was never the right person or the right time,and it's important to me to have both of those factors right.

As such I find myself approaching my 38th birthday and just about to have my first child.  Do I have any regrets?  No.  It does mean I'm extremely unlikely to have the big brood of kids I always hoped to have, but it means that I can be the best parent I can possibly be to the one I do have.

In terms of age, yeah in comparison to other first time mums in my area, I'm definitely older than the average.  But, I don't feel old.  I'm glad I'm doing it now though, I think much longer and I might have started to worry that I wouldn't be able to be healthy  or fit enough to run around with a growing child, to keep my energy up and stay involved in all the fun things we're going to do together.

Interestingly, a recent article on Parentdish identified that the number of over 40 first time mums is on the increase and for the first time ever is higher than the number of teenage pregnancies. I think this does depend on where you live though.

I'd be really interested to hear your thoughts about the right/wrong age to have children. When did you/dp you plan to have yours? Do you wish you'd done things differently?  How old is too old?

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