My older daughter is a senior this coming year, and my youngest an 8th grader. His attitude is that 5 years of kids in the home is a small price to pay when the exchange is he gets the right life partner out of the deal.
He knows he is NOT expected to be a step father nor parent my kids. They have a good, loving father. His role is my lover/life partner/husband. That's it. He has forged a neat rapport with my kids so that has been nice. But there is no need for him to parent nor provide. At 17 1/2 and 13 1/2 my girls are pretty self sufficient with their own friends and activities. They are not troubled kids at all and they are required and expected to be respectful and responsible, he said just last week that the kid thing has not been the issue he was concerned it would be prior to moving in. He likes them actually.
That would be way too big of an ask for me. I have a "no single moms, no exceptions" policy. I'm 39. In my 30s, I've seen plenty of single moms on apps when I was swiping but have rarely run into them in real world cold approaching.
A childless man and a single mom have way different lifestyles. Over the years, I've listened to both co-worker single moms and co-worker married moms. After listening to them, I realize that the lifestyle differences and priorities would be way too big of a gap for me to bridge. Additionally, I perceive raising another's man children as being the supreme beta move. Raising the children of a widow isn't as beta as raising the children of a man who is still alive. I have never run into a widow. Even still, I don't think I could handle the lifestyle incompatibilities of a childless man and a single mom.
Also, adult children are a royal pain too. Some 50+ men think that they are catching a break by dating a woman whose children are over 18 and grown. At 53, you likely have 50-55 year old female friends with children over 18. While a partner with independent, adult children is better than a partner with children under 10-12, having to deal with a woman's adult children stinks too. Almost no older men think about this angle.
He would disagree with this although he has turned it over in his mind. He never succumbed to this. He tolerates it with me because he finds me worth the trade off. We have actually discussed it at length. The girl was very hot/sexy to him. She was willing to do anything to keep him, including share him (she told him this). She wanted to get married, have babies very young and be a fulltime wife and mother. He did not want kids at all. Nor did he want to be responsible for a woman and in the position of taking care of a wife who doesn't work and wasn't educated (she had only a high school education and did not want to attend college)...and he knew that in time she would be boring because she didn't have any desire for education nor any ambition beyond wife and motherhood nor any of her own interests. He is an adventure sport athlete to this day and travels all over for various events. He invests his money there and raising children would have impeded this substantially. Looking over his life he does not think the woman from his youth would have been a great fit at all. He didn't want dependents. She and any children would have been utterly dependent upon him and he didn't want THAT. Knowing that he cut the relationship off even though she begged him back. Their life ambitions were not compatible and he knew that.
It seems like it was a great relationship in the moment but would have gone sour had it continued. He likely exited that relationship at the right time. Most relationships have a shelf life of goodness of around 2-5 years, no matter how long they last.
Younger women are either going to have younger kids or are going to want to have kids with him as dad. He does not want to deal with babies or young children. Ever.
In general, what you say about younger women is true, though it is becoming less true with the Millennials as they age into their mid 30s to early 40s. Now, if this 45 year old is such an amazing catch, he could date women in his 20s for 2-3 years at a time and trade them out once their bio clocks started ticking. He could also find a childless 40-45 year old who stayed in shape. A 40-45 year old isn't going to conceive.
Unless you really want kids, marriage is a terrible deal for men.
True. Also, if you have a child with a woman now, there is a really good chance that she won't be your romantic partner when the first child turns 18.
Humans are not meant to be monogamous creatures. Sorry. I have a lot of married friends and the husbands are mostly unhappy as post kids their wives are now out of shape and don't give a **** about them anymore because all they care about is their kids, the big house he can provide and women wonder why men step out. I think part of the problem is men aren't "gaming" their wives either after marriage. They both get complacent and a member of the opposite sex shows interest and that's all it takes.
Divorce rates at an all time high, 65% i think right now.
Shorter term monogamy can work. 2-5 year shelf life of goodness. Bad stuff tends to happen after that point.
Complacency on both sides is bad, which often happens after 2-5 years. Or the partners get too caught up in child-centered activities and neglect the primary relationship.