Since having kids is so tiring in the early years and often lead to a divorce, it is better to have them early when you are still fresh and handle better the lack of sleep, divorce early and then enjoy part time parenthood when you are still youngish.
I feel I am a better parent now that I am sharing custody of my kids and can better balance personal life and hobbies and parenthood.
A cheaper option would be to find someone looking for kids with no romance and agree on having shared parenthood.
I had my kids late in life and I always thought my life experience was a bonus when it came to raising the kids and wrt keeping it together with the wife.
Same and feel the same (in addition to financial stability) but oh so often I wish I had my kid earlier in my life
I can relate to that -- perhaps it's a bit the feeling of "missing out", like, when your peers have the time (and energy ;-)) to do fun stuff that you just cannot do because of the kids.
But I'm thinking that I had ample time to make experiences earlier in life, and even though I'm going to be close to retirement age by the time the last one of our children is going to leave the house, I still think it was fine the way it happened.
The whole framing of "I'm missing out because I have kids" is already a pretty terrible way of thinking about life, to be honest. I have a good friends who's divorced and with pretty much no circle of friends, apart from me, and he's really having a hard time coping with loneliness. Me, on the other, I cherish each chance I get to spend some alone time where I can just do hobby stuff or whatever, even though these moments really don't happen very often.
I do think loneliness is a separate, unrelated problem.
I’m vastly happier having had kids in my 30s rather than my 20s. Greater emotional and financial stability as well as a strong foundation for my marriage were boons.
Rather than accept divorce as an inevitability, there is also the option of discussing the possibility with your partner and making a mutual commitment to do what it takes to stay happy together.
Which is much easier with the added emotional maturity and life experience that comes with age.
Not to mention if you chose your partner after the age of 25.
I have to ask, what's the custody split?
50/50
The main downside is relocating is impossible until your kids reach adulthood if you want to keep it that way so that is something to consider.
That's the main downside of divorce, not of having children or the custody split.