Having a baby at fifty: keep the child or abort?

Ladies: If when you're fifty (or back when you were fifty) you found out that you were pregnant, would you have the child or terminate the pregnancy?
Gentlemen: basically the same question; how would you feel about becoming a dad for the first (or umpteenth) time at that age? Would you be happy, or argue for the pregnancy to be terminated?

Wow. I know I would not want to be a Dad at 50 but if it happened then I guess I would be.

I don't know why anyone would even want to think about it at that point.

I would have the baby and hope I remained in good health until the wee one graduated college. When you consider how many grandparents are raising their grandchildren, it is not unthinkable to be new parents at age 50.

My son will be about 28 when I am 50. That seems so strange to think of having a baby when I have a child pushing 30!

I took steps so that wouldn't happen.

If you're pregnant, you've got a kid on the way. It doesn't matter how old you are. You are no less a mother.

For the most part I'm not in favor of abortion, but this might be exception enough. Can't imagine giving birth at that age and I don't think it's fair to yourself or the child to have one when you're that old. You're always gonna be "old" to them and Kids require a ton of energy! Can you imagine a 55 yr old trying to deal with a pre-schooler or a 60-something having to deal with a teenager? I wouldn't be down for that personally.

femme fatale wrote:... or a 60-something having to deal with a teenager? ...

I ain't having no babies unless I WANTED them. How old I am isn't a factor....but having a kid at 50? LOL.

Pass. The oldest I'll be trying to push a child out of this cervix is 40-41…and that's a stretch (pun.)
If by some irony I become pregnant past that point, I will be scheduling an appointment to terminate.

It is a double standard because when a mother has a child at 50 people go 'oh she's too old, she's irresponsible, she'll die soon and that child will be left alone', but if a man waits until he's 50 to become a father, well 'good for him, finally a daddy', apparently it's okay if the daddy dies on the child when he's 6 or 10 or whatever but the mother must be young and in perfect health or else she is clearly not thinking.

And to answer, I would keep it.

Supernova wrote:It is a double standard because when a mother has a child at 50 people go 'oh she's too old, she's irresponsible, she'll die soon and that child will be left alone', but if a man waits until he's 50 to become a father, well 'good for him, finally a daddy', apparently it's okay if the daddy dies on the child when he's 6 or 10 or whatever but the mother must be young and in perfect health or else she is clearly not thinking.

And to answer, I would keep it.

Most men who have babies at 50 usually have them with women considerably younger than them, so at least one of the kids parents will have an extended life span ahead of them as the older parent more quickly ages into elder hood. If by some fluke a 50 y/o woman has a baby chances are that the father is her age or older.

I had my kids when I was young.....50 hell, the pregnancy would have been gone if I had been in my 40's. My husband wasn't 25 yet when he had a vasectomy, so we didn't have to worry about pregnancies. We were in our late 30's early 40's when the kids were grown and gone.

To answer the question myself, I really don't want anymore after forty. As it is, when I'm fifty, my son will only be eighteen; so I won't have the luxury of being that younger middle aged guy who gets to have some of their 'me' time back (ironically, when my daughter turns eighteen, I'll only be thirty-six.) The idea of having to go to PTA meetings when I'm sixty isn't appealing at all.

I don't know what I would ultimately do, but I can say that I think that sort of news at that age would be anything but pleasant.

I was watching a medical show that demonstrated how the tissue of the womb becomes porous as it gets older and thus when the placenta forms, proper nutrients cannot get to the baby which is what causes the various health problems in the babies.

I met a woman who was 54 and thought she had a tumor, went to the dr for an ultrasound, and found she was pregnant with twins! she had to go home and explain to her husband and 30 yr old daughter what happened!

wants2laugh wrote: she had to go home and explain to her husband and 30 yr old daughter what happened!

Her husband and 30 year old daughter didn't know where babies come from?