I grew up around teen pregnancy; my high school has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the state, and probably one of the biggest in the country. After graduation, seems like it was only a few months to a year or two before everyone from my class had a kid, even though they were only 18, 19, 20 years old.

I'm currently 21. Just found out today my ex-girlfriend who's 23 had a baby girl a few days ago, and I admit I'm happy for her. However, my current girlfriend today asked me, "When are we gonna have kids?" I told her truthfully, if indeed we do get married, I don't want kids till I'm in my 30's or 40's. She looked at me with slight disappoint, saying that the "prime" years for a woman to have a healthy child,is 25-27 years old, basically dropping the hint that she wants kids earlier than I do.

At 25 years old, I'll either still be in the military, or just getting out. I wanna be able to teach in Japan and Germany before settling down with kids. I know my girlfriend wants to see the world too. And I know for sure the number one cause of people not living out their dreams, such as traveling, is because of children.

So, tl;dr version, and my question to you AF, what is the "normal age" for having children, whether it be for the health of the mother and child, whether it be the maturity and readiness of the parents, share your thoughts please, and I hope this post isn't too blog like, if so I'll move it there.