I would like to conclude with my another publication on the urgent topic:
Have you ever mused upon the question which age can be the best for having children? Even if you think that this topic is not very important nowadays, when we have a lot of other social, economic and politic problems, I want to assume you that it is, and in this essay I will explain why. There is a big controversy: some people believe that parents should be young while others disagree by claiming that never should a person think about kids before he is settled and economically independent. Since the topic affects future generations, nothing can be more important. Let’s take a closer look on this problem.
I personally think that young people should have children as soon as possible especially in our times, and have some strong reasons for that. According to a 2003 National Vital Statistics Report, the average age at which women in the United States have their first child is 25.2 years old, which is historically high and can lead us to terrible, and somewhat irretrievable repercussion. Those who disagree, claim that youth have no experience in raising children, no money and more likely to separate in future. Let me try to explain why are they wrong and what are the terrible aftermaths which can lead from having a child at a later age.
There was an article in The Wall Street Journal from March 31, 2014 with a disappointing heading in big letters: “The Long (Long) Wait to Be A Grandparent”. My attention was enchained by a picture with a sad elderly couple sitting at the huge clock like at a round table. The man was holding a couple of small boots for baby in his hand, and a woman, almost crying, was hugging him. Its author, Ann Tergesen, writes about the unrepeatable connection between grandparents and grandchildren, which now is becoming slighter and slighter. She mentions a lot of documented benefits which a child receives having a grandparent. Financial support, highest quality of recreational time and nurture, engaging communication and educating a good behavior in a child are among them. But with age people lose this opportunity. Older grandparents are no longer able to spend time with their grandchildren, to teach them basics of life while parents are at work. More and more preference is given to nursery homes which makes child a boring, one-sided person. This two-page newspaper article ilustrates the situation in a wonderful way, providing a lot of sad interviews with to-be grandparents which stay with their “to-be” status for a decade or even more, and a lot of disappointing graphs and statistics.
But that is not the main problem. In Babytalk’s article by Patty Onderko with additional reportings by Abigail Cuffey and Reena Vadehra, “Immature Brats versus Old Hags: What Is The Best Age To Have A Baby?”, it is stated that one of dozen babies in United states is born to such a “hag” from the age group of 35 or older. It is clearly seen that children with older parents become anti-socialized people with no proper attitude to life. Childhood, with spending the majority of time in nursery homes and parents who are always at work play its role. What is much worse, there are no spiritual connection between older parents and their children. While young moms and dads are still children themselves and always glad to share a minute with their child to play, older ones are statistically orientated to judge.
Another story by Laura Flynn Mccarthy, “Pregnancy at 20, 30, 40” illustrates the problem from the medical point of view. Here the author describes the experience of pregnancy and child-bearing at different age categories. I recommend this story because it describes in detail all the disadvantages of having a baby at an older age and, above it, all the risks that a child take. The chance of miscarriage and stillbirth doubles at the age of 35 and quarters at the age of 40. Much more miserably do symptoms like chromosomal abnormalities, Down syndrome or other problems sound. And in our everyday life it can be clearly seen: parents with defective children became a usual part of landscape. A father in his fifties with a seven-or-so-year-old son in a wheelchair with malformed body, a Balzac age mother, walking outside with her daughter, who seems normal until she starts barking like a dog. People try to find answers in strong electromagnetic radiation, in terrible ecology of the city and many other things. In their problems people always try to blame something or somebody but themselves.
It can be concluded that with a new millennium of technologies which brought thousands of new opportunities to people, new problems also popped up. In my personal opinion, people should learn that being self-observed is a great mistake. People, especially women but men too, pay more and more attention on such things as education, work and career, in one word, on themselves and who they are. In recent times new words, such as feminism, civil rights, or equality became trendy. But a few people notice that those words are firstly connected with selfishness. Statistics which I gave above show that the majority do not understand that children are our (and their) future. Technology can give men and women an opportunity to become parents at older age, but technology can’t open their eyes on truth.
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