Maybe fertility rates will bounce back once housing prices come back down to earth?
Kids distract from the modern, busy, downsized life. They're a major time and financial burden, and they only add headache. You can't make them do meaningful work for you. They get in the way in ways that were impossible a century ago. You can't hop on a plane, take off after work, or shut them away and have them mind their own business. Not like on a farm, where kids could roam free, learn independently, and help with the mountain of chores.
This is tongue in cheek, of course, but there's definitely some truth to the calculus of whether or not to have children. And it's on everybody's minds.
Fingers crossed. My worry(?) is that any children I potentially have would move across the country (or world) and be fully occupied / overwhelmed by their own lives.
From my perspective, my mother can visit me just as well as I can her - I shouldn’t have to live by where she chose to live if it doesn’t work for me (and it doesn’t - the job opportunities stink and even if I did work remote, there is just a big cultural clash between me and that area). Once parents retire it is just as much on them to relocate close to me as it is I to them.
When I think about my desire to have children, I frame it in terms of them getting what they want, rather than sticking around like a pet.
Bad deal.
I don’t think parenting is a bad deal for the same reason any other kind of entertainment or fulfilling lifestyle choice is a “bad deal”
If they want to, and we happen to live near, then great. If their goals take them elsewhere, then that is great also.
ps. yes, i know that the opposite is also true.
I think it’s good that children are not viewed as an investment (note this is still the case in many cultures where communal living/financially supporting your parents is expected). But if it means fertility rates falling to drastically low SK/Japan levels we have to explore policy solutions.
I think it's much the same reason. When children are viewed as a giant economic and lifestyle cost, a lot of people will delay until they feel more ready. As things like good family housing become proportionally more expensive, it makes sense that people will want to wait until they feel more financially established in their careers and lives that they're comfortable taking on that kind of debt. And on the lifestyle front, there's more than ever that DINKs (dual-income no-kids) folks can spend their ample money and free time on, making having kids an even larger perceived opportunity cost. Why have kids in your 20s when you can't afford a house and can spend your time as a couple traveling or whatever when you can have kids in your 30s instead when you feel like you can better afford it and are maybe ready to settle down, or so the thinking goes for a lot of folks.
Now my person opinion. Unless your a millionaire, your never financially "stable" enough to have kids. It is going to kick you in the "balls" one way or another. Rather it is affording diapers (not so steep) or child care (almost take a whole pay check for many people) or medical. With that said, there is a degree where if I had to do it over, I may have waited.
it does; people want to wait until they're more financially secure/stable before having kids given the costs of raising children, and they are less likely to reach that stability until well into their 30s
In the UK, the average savings (net financial wealth) at 25 - 29 years old is £3,800, but the typical person in that age range has -£100. The average UK savings for 30 - 34 year old's is around £14,500 of net financial wealth (savings like current and savings accounts, stocks, bonds, etc. less financial liabilities), but the median figure is just £1,000.
By the time anyone is in a financially secure enough position to have children, they're at the stage where they're spending thousands in fertility treatment.
Big assumption there. Prices have fallen moderately so far (in some places) but mortgage rates are up which means there's still an affordability problem.
If prices were to "come back to earth" it would likely take a pretty serious recession to get us there (something akin to the '08 GFC) and that means even less people able to afford to buy.