These days, more and more people are in favor of delaying parenting in many countries. There are some concerning debates behind this trend. While there are several potential advantages , I believe they are overshadowed by the disadvantages that this tendency puts on individuals in terms of health and family relationship.
To begin with, there is one major reason that explains why people are delaying the time of having kids to later stages in life. In the past, as people lacked general access to educational opportunities, developing careers before family was not a widely adopted option. As a result, marrying earlier and embarking on parenthood in the early twenties were universally followed. In contrast, as educational opportunities have been improving drastically, allowing people to acquire enough knowledge to pursue careers, which leaves the reproductive timelines to be determined more independently. Another motivation behind this decision is the desire for personal growth and self-fulfilment. In modern life, many individuals prefer to invest more time and effort on themselves, bringing them to new adventures, trying out novel experiences and exploring different worlds before starting their own family.
From my perspective, deciding to build up a family depends on our personal expectations as well as our current situation. Although, when it comes to career prospects and personal satisfactions, there are several upsides of this phenomenon, I believe that the downsides might be more significant. Firstly, parental procrastination is likely to put babies and their mothers’ health at risk. It is scientifically proven that women giving birth after the age of 30 are prone to miscarriage due to the increase of chromosomal abnormalities with women’ age. Moreover, their babies may not have more problems related to health problems such as down syndrome than babies of younger women. On top of that, delaying parenting creates a gap between parents and children
On top of that, delaying parenting creates a gap between parents and children. It goes without saying that today’s world has always been changing constantly, ranging from social norms to the operation of our current civilization. Also, teenagers’ experiences are not the same as their parents’, making numerous differences between past and present, present and future, the young and the old. Therefore, families whose parents and children are at the same pace, are able to find mutual understanding. However, older parents tend to hold traditional views, which discourages parents to sympathise with common pressure among adolescents such as individualism. Consequently, the disparity in age results in challenges of finding mutual understanding in a family, leading to a generation gap preventing families from creating a close-knight family and gathering members altogether.
In conclusion, postponing parenting can be attributed to the positive change of society and individual preference regarding a rewarding life experience. Despite having certain benefits, it fails to surpass its negative effect on overall health and family connection as I mentioned above.