Band 7+: Many people nowadays tend to marry and have children in their thirties rather than at a younger age. Is this a positive or negative development?

Nowadays there is a trend of more and more people marrying and having children in their thirties rather than at a young age. In my opinion, this is a largely positive development due to a wide range of reasons, including the fact that becoming a parent after maturing and gaining financial stability leads to better parenting abilities, therefore resulting in children grown in healthier environments, and decreased divorce and unhappy marriage rates.

To begin, raising a human being is a huge responsibility. For that reason, an individual who wishes to become a parent should be mature enough to handle all the hardships that come with becoming a parent, which is mostly not the case for young adults. Moreover, people are not usually in a financially stable state in their twenties, due to several reasons. For instance, people tend to focus on their education or improving their professional careers in their twenties, often not leaving enough time or necessary amount of money to spend on their personal life, let alone on looking after children; however, in most cases, individuals in their thirties reach a stable state in their academic and professional lives, making them available to follow their parental duties.

Additionally, individuals in their late teens and twenties may not be cognitively developed enough to make critical decisions such as getting married. People in this period of their lives are often still trying to manage their own personal growth. Marriages at these ages frequently result in disagreements, domestic conflicts and higher rates of divorce, which is a detrimental environment for children to live in. For example, in South Korea the highest amount of divorce is seen among young spouses, which is a clear indication of the instability of marriages at young ages.

In conclusion, in my view, the trend of marrying and having children in one’s thirties instead of at a young age is a positive development, as it results in more mature parents and better parenting abilities, and promotes happier, more stable family dynamics.