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Do You Wish You Had Started a Family Sooner?
Recently I wrote about parental 'do-overs'—what you would do differently with another child. Several readers wrote that one thing they would change is waiting so long to have children.
最近我写了一篇关于“重做父母”的文章，就是如果再要一个孩子，你所做的事情会有什么不同。有几个读者写道，他们想改变的是：别等那么晚才要孩子。
As one commenter wrote: 'The only regret I have is not starting sooner to have kids because I had no idea I'd love being a mom as much as I do and I would have definitely had a third if not a fourth. [My husband] and I were so focused on establishing ourselves career-wise and waited, as it turns out, a little too long.' Another wrote: 'I too wish I had started sooner. Being in my mid-thirties and having my first makes me wish [my husband] and I hadn't dragged our feet so long to start our family. I'm loving being a mommy!'
有个读者是这么写的：“唯一让我感到遗憾的是，我没有早点要孩子，因为当时不知道当自己这么喜爱作母亲的感觉。我肯定会继续生，就算不生四个，至少也要生三个。我和丈夫那时候太重视事业，结果等了很长时间才决定要孩子。”还有一个写道：“我也希望能早点要孩子，我生第一个孩子的时候已经三十多岁了，我和丈夫都觉得当初不该犹豫那么久才做出决定，我太爱当妈妈的感觉了！”
These comments hit close to home. Like a number of readers, my husband and I waited a while before we chose to have kids in our mid-30s. Now that I have my first son I love being a mom so much that I occasionally regret not starting my family a little sooner. I'd like to have three kids (I grew up in a family of three children and loved it) but because I got a 'later' start, that might not be so feasible as my body gets older and my fertility and energy-level wane.
对此我深有同感。和许多读者一样，我和丈夫等到三十多岁才决定要孩子。生下第一个小男孩后，我觉得当妈妈的感觉好极了，所以有时候会后悔没有早点生孩子。我想要三个孩子（我父母就生了三个，我很喜欢在那样的环境里长大），但由于我起步晚了，生三个可能不太现实，因为身体会变老，生育能力和精力会跟不上。
On the plus side, my husband and I who will be married five years this week but who have been together for eight years waited until we were sure that we really wanted and were ready to have children; we were rather indifferent about having children early on in our relationship, so we wanted to make sure that we really wanted to be parents. My husband is a child of divorce, so we also wanted to be confident that our marriage was on sound footing before we brought a child into the world. We also wanted to be reasonably settled financially and professionally.
不过，晚要孩子也有好处，本周将迎来我和丈夫的结婚五周年纪念日，但我俩在一起已经八年了。我们等了很长时间，充份确认是否真的要孩子，并做好了各种准备。早些时候，我们觉得要不要孩子无所谓，因此需要时间确认自己真的想当父母。我丈夫来自一个单亲家庭，所以我们想在赋予一个孩子生命前，想确信我们的婚姻基础很牢固。此外，我们也想先在经济上和事业上站稳脚跟。
