Maybe scatter cushions are your girlfriend's 'chairs' Houlley (think the movie Phenomenon' starring John Travolta).

The dialogue for this conversation so far reminds me of the Yorkshiremen in Monty Python's Flying Circus.

"FOURTH YORKSHIREMAN: I was happier then and I had nothin'. We used to live in this tiny old house with great big holes in the roof.

SECOND YORKSHIREMAN: House! You were lucky to live in a house! We used to live in one room, all twenty-six of us, no furniture, 'alf the floor was missing, and we were all 'uddled together in one corner for fear of falling.

THIRD YORKSHIREMAN: Eh, you were lucky to have a room! We used to have to live in t' corridor!

FIRST YORKSHIREMAN: Oh, we used to dream of livin' in a corridor! Would ha' been a palace to us. We used to live in an old water tank on a rubbish tip. We got woke up every morning by having a load of rotting fish dumped all over us! House? Huh."

Does anyone find it odd that the modern youth are deemed to be more informed, more mature and more streetwise than previous generations but are perceived as too young to bear children compared with those who were far more naive and less streetwise in 'them olden' days'?

Fact is you live to your responsibilities for the most part. If you have children younger you make do and responsibility either makes you mature or makes you run (there was a bit of that too).

There is no reason to think having children when you are physically more primed to reproduce is any better or worse than when you are older. In some ways having children younger gets it out of the way, then you can travel and enjoy yourself while you still have 'youth' on your side. Fact is though egg and sperm do age and having children older is biologically more difficult as I can attest having had one child in late 20s (considered as an older mum even then) and the other at 32.

Pelican, you've missed the point of the discussion, which is that women who are not yet "too old", at 30-34, are finding that it is very difficult to get men to agree to inseminate them, even when they are married.

I have posited that this is because the presence of the CSA and the Family Court as a background threat. Their existence means that a relationship of peers is not possible once a child arrives, since both partners know that if she gets pissed off and leaves, he's screwed.

Pretending that this very large stick is not influencing people is simply ostrichism. Let's face it, handing out a "baby bonus" was enough to get some couples to breed, so why would anyone think that the threat of having 1/3 of one's gross income taken away would not have a significant impact on behaviour?

The age of the particular group of would-be mothers is only relevant to the extent that it indicates the seriousness of the issue for them, since they will miss out altogether if they cannot convince someone to do the deed within a very few years.

I don't like their chances.

I'm not sure what the Yorkshiremen have to do with it.

Antiseptic,

You state that you "don't like their chances."
(of women getting impregnated).

I'd say that while men prefer not to wear a
condom, and many don't,
women's chances are quite high.

BTW: Don't generalize all women.

Lexi, thanks for your contribution. Do you make your husband wear a condom as a normal part of sex? Poor chap.

Antiseptic,

The point being made was in reference to your previous erroneous statement (you didn't like women's chances of being impregnated)
and I tried to merely point out to you that as many men prefer not to wear a condom women will be impregnated as a result.
This thread isn't about my sex life. Which frankly is none of your business.

Lexi:"point out to you that as many men prefer not to wear a condom women will be impregnated as a result."

I have never worn a condom when I've been in a stable, long-term, monogamous relationship, which has been most of my adult life apart from the past few years.

I'm sure there must be some women who like the idea of their husband wearing one, but I've not met any.

I'll put you down as "all's fair in love and war". Your poor husband...