評論
打印
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.
最近我寫了一篇關于“重做父母”的文章，就是如果再要一個孩子，你所做的事情會有什么不同。有幾個讀者寫道，他們想改變的是：別等那么晚才要孩子。
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!'
有個讀者是這么寫的：“唯一讓我感到遺憾的是，我沒有早點要孩子，因為當時不知道當自己這么喜愛作母親的感覺。我肯定會繼續生，就算不生四個，至少也要生三個。我和丈夫那時候太重視事業，結果等了很長時間才決定要孩子。”還有一個寫道：“我也希望能早點要孩子，我生第一個孩子的時候已經三十多歲了，我和丈夫都覺得當初不該猶豫那么久才做出決定，我太愛當媽媽的感覺了！”
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.
對此我深有同感。和許多讀者一樣，我和丈夫等到三十多歲才決定要孩子。生下第一個小男孩后，我覺得當媽媽的感覺好極了，所以有時候會后悔沒有早點生孩子。我想要三個孩子（我父母就生了三個，我很喜歡在那樣的環境里長大），但由于我起步晚了，生三個可能不太現實，因為身體會變老，生育能力和精力會跟不上。
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.
不過，晚要孩子也有好處，本周將迎來我和丈夫的結婚五周年紀念日，但我倆在一起已經八年了。我們等了很長時間，充份確認是否真的要孩子，并做好了各種準備。早些時候，我們覺得要不要孩子無所謂，因此需要時間確認自己真的想當父母。我丈夫來自一個單親家庭，所以我們想在賦予一個孩子生命前，想確信我們的婚姻基礎很牢固。此外，我們也想先在經濟上和事業上站穩腳跟。
