What's more, being older parents and having a bunch of nephews and a niece, as well as a ton of friends who already had young children, meant that we had a lot of models for parenthood and we didn't feel overwhelmed or particularly anxious about being parents once our son was born. And as a couple who loves to travel, we were able to take some incredible trips—to South Africa, Turkey, Costa Rica, Italy, Mexico—that would be more challenging and expensive once kids were here.

还有一个好处是，作为一对晚育父母，我们周围已经有一大堆亲戚朋友生了孩子，可以向他们学习很多知识，不至于在自己为人父母时感到手足无措或者焦虑不安。作为一对喜欢到处玩的夫妻，我们有时间去一些很棒的地方旅行，比如南非、土耳其、哥斯达黎加、意大利、墨西哥等；而如果有孩子，出去旅行将显得既困难，又花钱。

But being older parents has its drawbacks, too. While I had no trouble getting pregnant with my son, I'm well aware that fertility drops precipitously for many women as they hit their late 30s and 40s. It's not just an issue for women; as the Juggle and the the New York Times have reported, dads have biological clocks, too. French researchers reported last year that the chance of a couple's conceiving begins to fall when the man is older than 35 and falls sharply if he is older than 40, according to the Times.

然而，晚生孩子也有缺点。虽然怀第一个孩子没问题，但我很清楚，很多女人的生育能力到三四十岁时会突然下降。而且，并非只有女人才这样。本专栏和《纽约时报》(New York Times)都报导过，男人也有类似的生物钟。《时代杂志》(Times) 2008年的一篇报导说，法国研究人员发现，男人过35岁后，夫妻之间的怀孕成功率开始下降，到40岁后，成功率会急剧降低。

At the Juggle, we've written before about how women, on average, are now opting to have babies younger; the average age at which women give birth for the first time, 25 years old, posted the first decline since the government began tracking the data in 1968, according to the National Center for Health Statistics. Readers, did any of you wait a while to have children or did you start your families when young? How do you feel about your decision?

在此前的专栏文章中，我们曾经报导过，现在大多数女性都希望早点要孩子。根据美国国家卫生统计中心(National Center for Health Statistics)的数据，女性生头胎时的平均年龄为25岁，这是政府自1968年跟踪这方面数据以来第一次出现年龄下降。各位读者朋友，你是结婚后等一段时间再要孩子，还是趁着年轻就让二人世界更进一步？你对自己做出的决定有何感想？