The best gift the Bank of Mum and Dad can give their kids? A chance at parenthood

June 25, 2026 — 5:00am

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“How do you want your eggs?” I asked my daughter over breakfast on her 33rd birthday, “Fertilised?” I then presented her with an egg-freezing gift voucher.

So many female friends are singing the same tune that it’s become like the maternal version of the musical Frozen. Our main refrain? That we’re worried about when – and if – the snooze alarm is going off on our daughters’ biological clocks.

By 33, I’d had two marriages and two children. But my darling daughter is still happily dating and very much in demand. She’s also part of a trend. Women are having fewer babies, later. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reports that births per 1000 women aged 20–24 have fallen sharply – by roughly three-quarters since the post-war baby boom. Australia’s total fertility rate has also dropped to a record low of 1.48 births per woman. Meanwhile, the average age of mothers has increased, with more births occurring in the mid-30s and beyond.

But eggs have a use-by date. While dinosaurs like Donald Trump could father a child tonight, female fertility noticeably decreases after a woman reaches her late........

© The Sydney Morning Herald