Commentary on getting pregnant, and not just in that abstract way

My wife wrote a guest entry for this blog today, in which she (reluctantly) admitted I had been right about something. I'm going to return the favor, with regard to a disagreement we had 20 years ago.

At that time, I was 24 and had just saved up enough to purchase my first motorcycle. I was also planning a hiking trip with a few buddies to the Southwest. So when my wife announced she was pregnant, I was dumbstruck. I might have to sell the motorcycle. No more road trips with friends.

Oh, sure, we had discussed the idea of having kids, but it seemed to me that our discussions were always in that abstract, "Sure honey I want to have kids let's start right now" sort of way. Did I mention I was 24 at the time?

Twenty-four, you see, was her outer limit for getting started on child-rearing. If she had her way, she would have had our first child at 22 or so, but I was too busy "living life" to settle down and have children. I'm like a lot of people in my generation, who wanted to spend their 20's traveling, working in coffee shops, and playing the bongos in black turtlenecks at night for free drinks. Having kids? That's something most of our peers started in their mid to late 30's. But my wife was adamant that it was better to start a family when we were young. Looking back, this was a pretty serious difference of opinion between the two of us, and I actually think she was pretty sneaky about getting her way, exploiting my limited understanding of the human reproduction system like that.

But you know what? She had the right idea. Most of my co-workers are now in their 40's and have kids in elementary school. They're going to be in their mid to late 50's when their kids leave home. And right now they are insanely jealous of us. But I think having kids early has other benefits as well: As younger parents, we had much more energy to expend on our small children. And because we had little in the way of careers, we also had no money - which forced us to learn to live frugally early on. And that too has paid off.

So it's worked out pretty well for us so far. And while it might not be right for everyone, I do believe there are couples out there who convince themselves they "should" have a mortgage, and careers, and a 401K before they have kids. But you know what we found? Your children won't remember how much money you had when they were little. They just remember the sandcastles.

City dwellers increasing faster than suburban dwellers

Saw this article about suburban living vs. city living the other day. The first line is, "For the first time in a century, most of America's largest cities are growing at a faster rate than their surrounding suburbs..."

The article goes on to explain why more people are fleeing the suburbs to live downtown.

Interesting.