Girls should forget university and have babies instead !

Ana!

I just meant the article was a bit rubbishy.

I don't really read the Guardian. Although I'm sure it's fine.

No, Elegran, bank of mum and dad. Haven't read the article and do not intend to. The headline is nauseating enough. There's a big gap between when you leave university and the age when fertility falls.

How does she think they will get on the property ladder if they go straight into baby-raising without earning any money or gaining some qualifications towards earning some? Marry a rich older man who already has the dosh?

You mean you think she'll do another one for the Guardian next week, condemning girls who have babies before they've had experience of university/life/travel etc?

I think perhaps girls going to uni before settling down means they have had chance to develop a bit of maturity. Surely, having, and raising, a family is n't only about fertility.

I think that article has been tailor-made for the Daily Mail.

Didn't read all the article, so I wonder if she understands that children, teenage girls usually have their own ideas about what plans they might have.

I can see that this would appeal to some, but why her daughters would have a struggle with getting on the property ladder, I cannot imagine. They'll probably have a property portfolio to fall back on with a parent like her.

I like Kirsty Allsopp, but she does come out with a few howlers every now and again. I don't see her as a feminist in my understanding of the word, although she seems to be an independent woman who will tackle many things and not depend on a man to help her, and in business I could see her at the top of the ladder.

I wouldn't push mine in the direction she suggests - I encouraged them to spread their wings and see the world, not think about houses, babies or university but find out what they wanted to do with their lives. One had a gap year and visited Australia and the other moved out to live with her friend for a few months, then returned home. Within a few short years, they'd done their degrees, met partners, bought houses and had children in their late twenties.

I haven't read the article but I'm assuming she's warning of the time clock that women have and how easy it is these days to assume you can easily have a child when you get older [it isn't] and the heartbreak it can cause when things go wrong. Although the 'get on the property ladder' sounds like a quote from someone with money that has always had money and doesn't realise how difficult it is for young people these days with so many 30 year olds still living at home. [honestly; writing all this I'd've had time to read the full article which I shall do now ].

The fact that Kirsty Allsop has no daughters says it all. Our daughter was adamant that she be educated the same as her brothers. Not that we hadn't intended to do that.

My experience is that you can advise till you are blue in the face, and they still do their own thing, and/or "life intrudes" - my daughter for instance would have liked to have had a baby 6 years ago, but it didn't happen for her partner-wise. She now sometimes says that she wishes she had fallen pregnant in her 20s with her then partner.