What's to young to have a kid?

All of your suggested ages are too young.

Your question doesn’t include such ages as, 23, 25, 27, 30, etc. I would think that the decision about when to have a child has a great deal to do with the maturity of the individuals: are they old enough to have figured out their own lives? and can they care selflessly for an infant, with constant demands that have to be met with warmth, humor, and joy? Some people can do this relatively young (although teenage years seem like an unnecessary burden to have a child) and others need many more years to get to the point where they can give to a child what the child needs.

I think it varies by person, but my first guess would be that you’re old enough when you (1) have the maturity to handle all the responsibility that a kid introduces into your life, and (2) when you are in a position to financially support said child on your own, or with the help of willing family. If people obeyed these two simple suggestions, it would save a lot of trouble in the world (including a population that’s too big).

As you might imagine, the age at which people attain these milestones varies. As such, it’s impossible to pinpoint an age that is “old enough” for the population at large. Some people are ready early, and some people aren’t ready even in their 40’s or 50’s (when the point usually becomes moot anyway).

I started writing an answer and then laureth posted what I wanted to say and she said it better than I would have.

Too young to have a kid is anytime before you’re smart enough to know not to ask.

To add to laureth’s answer it also depends on culture, time and place. I have an opener assignment for my students that asks general cultural questions one of which is when it is a good time to start a family, Most of my students say 27–29. Back in the 50’s most women said 20–22.

In less developed areas of the world first time mothers are usually in their teens.

A lot of it has to do with opportunities available to women. If there is going to be nothing in her life but motherhood, the mother will start earlier. The sad thing is that many girls in the US have such low self esteem they don’t realize their own worth and end up pregnant.

Now don’t go all defensive on me about always wanting to be a mother so that’s why you are happy it “happened” when you were 17, Bristol, It doesn’t just “happen” millions of times a year.

@GalileoGirl: I do think that the two standards of emotional and financial readiness change in different times and places, but those are still the same standards. In the 50’s, I think people grew up earlier, and there were some well-paying jobs that you didn’t need an advanced degree to obtain. People could legitimately have kids earlier for this reason, and the ages your students cite seem to mesh with this idea.

Nowadays there’s a kind of “adultolescence” that twentysomethings go through, whereas they didn’t necessarily do that in the 50’s. Kids remain dependant longer, perhaps taking five or more years to graduate with a traditional four year degree (now imperative for a child-supporting job), and some even move back home after graduation until they’ve saved up enough to live on their own. (I think a lot of this has to do with manufacturing jobs that used to pay a living wage, but were moved overseas as a way for the company to save money.)

For their part, boys are becoming much slower to grow up. In the 50’s, you could expect a 25-year-old man to be married and have a career underway. Nowadays, a 25-year-old boy still wants to play with his XBox and play D&D on the weekends.

The twenties are the new late-teens, and the thirties are the new twenties. If this trend continues, people will be emotionally and financially ready to bear children about the time their gametes peter out.

I work in a daycare for the kids of high school students, and let me tell you some of these teen moms are much better parents than many 30–50 year old parents I have met. I don’t think you can just name an age and have it be a blanket age that’s too young to have a kid…it’s different for each and every person in the world.

12…

lmao…i had found out my aunt got married at 12, my fam’s in Turkey
and she’s much older now, much much older
i from Tejas though haha i just found that funny…
Mi madre had me when she was 30 sumthing though

Six years old is too young.

Seven, too.

@astro, Apparently five isn’t.

That’s disturbing.

Agreed.

11 but thats just cuz my girlfriend colored me a picture of her being too young…

@omfgTal: Ugh…poor girl : (

@madcapper: Double Ugh…it is in poor taste to joke about that shit.

@ augustian ok I will agree I went too far…