With all due respect, you "foreigners" are simply different about it, because I had exactly the same discussion with my Bosnian ex-colleague... She simply couldn't understand how a woman could still have a child at 30 years old, that would be way too late. Well, if I have no problem living with 5 people in a 3-room social apartment in Kassel-Waldau on a housing benefit and letting my children grow up among gray high-rises, then of course I can finish my family planning by my mid-twenties.
However, if you want to have your own four walls, then with today's price levels on the property market you’d rather postpone having children. That's what almost everyone is advised here in the home financing forum, if they don't bring home 3,000,- net by their late twenties and want to build a house and have children at the same time.
I think it’s also a question of type. We both take care of ourselves and are healthy and fit. I can still keep up with 20-year-olds in football without any problems. Others our age are already pretty "worn out." For them, toddlers would be the last straw.
We "foreigners" no longer have 8 kids at 20 either; we've "Germanized" in that regard. 2 kids at / after 30.
Yes, ownership or social strength for children I acknowledge. But at what price? I couldn't imagine becoming a father/mother again at 40, 42, or even 45 just for the sake of ownership.
Totally unhealthy for oneself and the children. You can’t complain if they develop some intolerances or the dad gets called "grandpa."
I have a colleague here. She made a strong career before, then realized something was missing at 42. Previously she always gave heavy-handed advice to us young colleagues about child-rearing, e.g. behavior in restaurants.
And now?
Child is here, her guy — I think 47 — doesn’t want to cut back on his hobby, she’s exhausted every day. She said goodbye to full-time, she no longer gets nice projects. Did everything right.