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Not a father, but not for lack of trying. My wife and I started adoption paperwork recently.
I would have liked to have gotten married at around age 21 or 22 (so not long after returning from my missionary work) and would have happily had kids right away, or after graduation (age 23-24) at the latest. But God definitely had something else in store for me. I'm 34 now.
That said, I think OP is right about most men not wanting to have kids young. Non-religious men who want to have families at a young age are the exception, not the rule.
People who are married, want kids, and are trying for them - I have no problem there.
I realise I came on strong, but do the people suggesting how to fix the 'fertility problem' not realise who they sound like?
The Taliban. You are the Taliban. Stop women going to school. Train girls that their duties are to be good wives and mothers, and not outside the home. Discourage women from trying to step outside the home. Some of the wilder suggestions that women should be under the authority of their fathers and not allowed their own choice in mates, because women make bad decisions about wanting only the alpha males (or whatever).
You at least dangle economic advantage for being parents as the carrot, but there's plenty of stick there. I wanted to point out would men accept such restrictions? And if not, why think that women would? And that it takes two to tango, it was both sexes got us to the point where we are now, and it's all very well for men to talk about women not wanting to settle for Mr. Okay, to get married early, and to start having a lot of kids (though nowadays apparently four counts as "a lot"), when they're single/childless themselves.
Mote and beam, people. That's what I meant. I want marriage and motherhood to be restored to a place of respect, because I think both feminism and the views expressed often in these discussions that woman are leeches (either they don't want to marry, or a man is a fool to marry because the woman will divorce him and strip him of all he has earned) has helped destroy the idea of marriage and parenthood for both sexes.
You won't fix it by trying to shackle women to the kitchen sink, if men aren't willing to step up and take the same medicine of early marriage and early fatherhood.
I still am confused by your thought process. You think there are hordes of men unwilling to marry in their early 20s a girl who went to school with him either HS or college? The stats all say that 21 year old apprentice carpenter Joe can't even get a date with 21 year old hair stylist Jane. Instead she exclusively dates 28 year old attorneys in the top 10% of attractiveness, despite being average looking herself. Those 28 year old attorneys juggle 15 Janes up till Jane turns 31, then he marries 28 year old attorney and a 9.5/10 Jill and Jane is looking around wondering what went wrong. Meanwhile Joe has gone through 10 years of never getting a date.
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I'm sure the Taliban are more than willing to administer that medicine, so your accusation doesn't hold up.
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