Maybe Baby – the top 29 things to do before you start a family
Recent research* has identified the top 29 things that women want to do before they start a family. Why 29? Well, that is the average age for a woman in the UK to have a baby!
Over 1,000 women, aged between 18 and 40, were asked what they would like to do before committing themselves to motherhood. Running a marathon (21), bungee jumping (10) and learning another language (14)
all featured in the top 29, but top of the pre-pregnancy checklist is travelling the world. Other adventurous escapades to crop up on the list were abseiling (10), deep-sea diving (28), climbing a mountain (29), living or working abroad (17) and learning to ride a motorbike (26).
The list reveals several interesting factors about the priorities of today’s women, such as adventure being paramount. A third of the women interviewed (33%) thought that fulfilling their sense of adventure was essential before having a baby. They also recognised that being a mother makes it more difficult to be spontaneous and necessitates losing much of your past freedom, so doing as much as possible before having a baby makes sense.
Life Coach Georgina Burnett says: “It’s great that women are clear about the goals they want to achieve beforethey become pregnant and start a family. Whilst motherhood is a wonderful time of life, it’s a big responsibility and means you have less time to invest in yourself.”
While it’s important that women explore their adventurous side, women should also consider more traditional and sensible goals and some of these do appear on the list, such as buying a house (2), paying off debts (5) and saving money (9).
It seems that modern women are keen to ensure they’re in a committed relationship before considering starting a family, with getting married (3) and falling in love (13) both appearing amongst the top goals.
The top 10 are:
- Travel the world
- Buy a house
- Get married
- Establish a good career
- Pay off debts
- Become fully qualified in a profession
- Pass driving test
- Establish financial security
- Save money
- Take part in an extreme sport such as abseiling, skydiving or bungee jumping
*Carried out by Research Now on behalf of Leonville One Step
I didn’t know 29 was the average age for a woman in the UK to have a baby! That’s how old I was….We did do a big trip to India before getting pregnant but nothing else in particular. Interesting post!