Jeremy:
Jeff and I are going to jump on a landmine today with this conversation around three reasons to have more kids in your youth, okay? So this is not a conversation a lot of people have, but when you’re trying to build a multigenerational team, I’ve never heard people actually consider the implications of what happens when you wait for a long time to have kids. What happens to your family, multi-generationally?

One way to think about this, just to set this up, is do the math, right? If you waited 40 years, which if you guys look at the trends, people are waiting longer and longer to have their first child … Let’s say you wait until you’re 40 years old, just an extreme example, to have your first child, and your children wait 40 years to have their first child. Then your first grandchild is being born when you’re 80 years old, right? So, that’s one extreme example. And so your multigenerational impact is starting to be felt more in that second generation, in your eighties.

Contrast that with somebody who has their first child at 20, another extreme example. A lot of people don’t have them that early these days, but let’s say they did, and your children did the same thing. Let’s say you had three children starting when you were 20 and your children had three children starting when you were 40. Your first grandchild would be born when you were 40. You’ll have nine grandchildren between your forties and sixties. You’ll start to have your great-grandchildren in your sixties, right? And if they have three, again, you’ll have … What is that? 27? It starts to compound, right? And then your great-grandchildren will start to be born in your eighties.

You can see, these are totally different kinds of families, totally different kinds of experiences, totally different kinds of lives. And so there’s three different reasons you guys should really consider this. And there’s a great verse in the Psalms that talks about that: “There’s a blessing in having children born in one’s youth.” It says that in Psalm 1:27.

Why is it a blessing to have children born in your youth? There’s three reasons. One is that each year you wait is one less year your children will know their grandparents. That’s just math, guys. Every year you wait, that’s one less year your children will know your parents, their grandparents. So if that’s a big value to you, then that’s a big consideration that a lot of people just don’t even think about. Each year you wait is one less year you will know your grandkids. I just laid out how that works. Again, it’s simple math. That’s what’s going to happen if you wait more and more years. And the third reason is each year you wait shrinks the opportunity that you will have to have more children. If that’s a value to you, you want to have a larger family, then waiting obviously puts a damper on that as well.

And so, again, I’ve never heard … And Jeff, I’m curious how you’re reacting to this. I’ve never heard this conversation being had in public, like the simple math of what happens when you have children earlier versus later. And one of the times that it struck me the most is I read an article once about a man living in Jerusalem who had 1,500 living descendants.

Jeff:
That’s insane.

Jeremy:
And I actually sat down and did the math. This guy was having 20 kids, and his kids … I’m not recommending this, you guys.

Jeff:
Crazy.

Jeremy:
But just to show you how fast this math compounds, this guy who was I think in his nineties in Jerusalem, he had 1,500 living descendants. I’m not recommending it. I’m not going to have that many. Jeff’s not going to have that many. But this math, in even much smaller numbers, makes a big difference. But yeah, how do you react to that, Jeff?

Jeff:
Yeah. Well, it’s funny you brought this up because I’ve actually thought about the same thing. I’ve never thought about it exactly like this, but yeah, I remember … So we got married and started having kids pretty young. I was 25 by the time we had Kinsley. That’s not crazy young, but it’s certainly young by these days. And yeah, I remember I never thought about it. It was not a reason for why we had kids then, it just was like that was just kind of our lot, and it just ended up happening then. And I remember once we had Kinsley though, I just started thinking about doing the math, like, oh, I’ll be X when she’s X, I’ll be this when she’s that. And yeah, if she gets married and started having kids when we did, I’ll be 50. Potentially, if it’s a couple years before that, I’ll be in my forties as a grandparent. That’s amazing, right?

Jeremy:
Yeah.

Jeff:
I just thought about that. That’s awesome to be in my forties as a grandparent, potentially. Depending on how quick we can continue-

Jeremy:
That’s right.

Jeff:
… the generations, that could go great-great-grandparent, which is crazy to think about. Now of course, that doesn’t mean we’re pushing kids to get married and all these different things. It’s just interesting to think about with generational multiplication. And like what you said, it’s a different family, right?

Jeremy:
Yeah.

Jeff:
If you can actually get one more generation in, it’s a different family. And we also are receiving the benefits of this. So we’re on the young side of … like Kinsley knows her great-grandma, which is crazy, and great-grandpa. That’s really cool.

Jeremy:
That’s awesome.

Jeff:
And they’re only in their eighties, still, which is insane, too. So, man, that’s just really crazy, right, that there’ll be, hopefully, a longevity of relationship there, hopefully, Lord willing, for a little bit longer. And I just think that’s so special to think that, man. What a legacy, what a testimony. And for her to know her great-grandparents and then, like you have talked about before, for them to know three or four generations ahead of them when they were kids and they can connect those dots, we’re going like eight generations now, which is just crazy. They can tell stories that their parents told them about before the automobile and electricity and all these things. That’s crazy, right?

Jeremy:
That’s super cool.

Jeff:
So yeah, I just think it’s really, really cool to think about. There’s no shame here. There’s no pressure, there’s no guilt. Your lot is your lot. Your family is your family. The Lord writes all of our stories. But I do think for the couple percent of people who are only thinking through the American lens of the classic American story of wait, wait, wait, get a job, build a career, do all those things, and then basically the finish line is the kids, once we’re steady, once we’re stable: I would just say, let this actually then pressure you, or let this challenge you.

That’s the only scenario where I would say this is actually really important to think about. But if it’s infertility or some of these other things or just you already have kids, that’s not who we’re talking to. I think this is just a really good topic to think about for those people who are living in a story that just kind of falls in line with actually putting kids as a check box once you’re 45, which that’s really unique and that’s not normal in culture. And I think to actually consider that and rethink that is really important.