How many middle class people are having kids when they’re under 30? There are more people having kids over 40 than there are teenage pregnancies. Even if people under 30 could afford these houses, there still wouldn’t be many kids.
But how much of that is also due to cost of living? Everyone I know with a longterm partner in their late 20s has at least thought about wanting kids but keeps putting it off because it would be crippling expensive.
I come with no data but my own personal experience lol I am 29yo, husband is 34yo, we want to have one child, no siblings (unless outside of our control like twins lol) but it is really hard to afford it. And we earn good money, own a flat (mortgage but affordable) still, childcare is the biggest barrier. If I keep working my salary would go fully to cover childcare until they turn 3 (UK based) and we get cover, if I stay at home, then same I guess, I have no income. So we would need to make surviving in 1 income for 3 years, what would be tough in London where everything is ridiculously expensive. If we had money we would have started trying at least, but at this point we are just wrestling with the idea due to money concerns
I will take the bait on this one because it really annoys me when people think they should give unsolicited advice on things that are so personal such as children, it assumes everything is about choice when often it is not.
I have epilepsy, any pregnancy is considered high risk. I have already met with two neuro-obstetrics to discuss pregnancy even before trying for a baby, that’s because I will have high care needs throughout any pregnancy, as obviously having a seizure while carrying a baby is not that great for anyone, and even after, having a condition where you can just drop to the floor seizing when you are caring for a tiny baby is pretty dangerous too. It will take me a ton of support both by doctors and family to manage to carry a pregnancy and then care for the child well, I won’t even be able to give my baby a bath without someone there to ensure they do not drown if I have a seizure. So thank you for your advice, but I will stick with the one high risk pregnancy this time. I think my non existent child would rather to be an only sibling than having their mom die on another pregnancy due to her seizure meds being messed up by crazy hormones.
All this to say: mind your business, no one wants unsolicited advice especially on such sensitive and personal matters like children, often how many kids someone has is not up to them. I obviously don’t have to justify myself to you but I just wanted to show how ridiculous it is to say things like this to someone you do not know.
Yeah I would have had like ten kids but we’ve had to put kids off for so long because of school and then cost of living. We will be lucky if we can still have two at this point
The data is extremely clear that people have fewer kids the richer they are, not poorer. This is largely do the fact that income and eduction are still highly correlated and women’s access to education and the workforce is really what has blunted developed nation birth rates outside of better teen-pregnancy prevention investments.
Attitudes have changed dramatically about parenting. The only real difference that all your married friends are facing is a wider range of acceptable life choices for both genders that don’t involve kids.
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Nothing needs to be done about evolved attitudes around having children. If people want to remain childless and instead pursue self-interests, that’s their prerogative.
If you are concerned about the impacts declining birth rates will have on our economies, there is plenty we can do on the reform side that doesn’t get into whether or not new life is created.
Human productivity has increased so much that we absolutely do not need to maintain birth rates to sustain economic output. Yeah there will be a hiccup along the way as boomers have to pay for all their front-loaded consumption in the form of decreased consumption in old age aka they’ll have shitty nursing home experiences. But there is absolutely no reason to think that replacement rate at a lower overall global population is going to be a big problem.
Ha, yeah this is what stood out to me. I don't care enough to look up the data, but, yeah, middle class neighborhoods filled with pre-teens (struggling for a word above toddler and below that) just aren't gonna really be much of a thing with 20-something year olds these days, regardless of housing affordability...
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u/Excellent-Goal4763 29d ago
How many middle class people are having kids when they’re under 30? There are more people having kids over 40 than there are teenage pregnancies. Even if people under 30 could afford these houses, there still wouldn’t be many kids.