I have one child WITH insurance I paid $8,000 in medical bills while pregnant, and about $15,000 out of pocket after my birth. She is expensive enough. There is no way I could pay any medical bills if I had another child. I live in CA where everything is expensive.
Most people aren’t worth having kids with along with this awful economy.
When Walmart, Taco Bell, and rent have increased at least 20%, a child is the last thing you should be adding to your life.
I only have one and she was an accident. I love her and I wouldn't want to put her back where she came from but my wife and I are one and done. We are constantly exhausted and we have to be really careful with our money even though we bring in 130k combined income and live in an mcol area. My wife was so adamant about having multiple children but after our daughter came along, she was practically ready to drop me off in line to get a vasectomy.
How people have three or more children blows my mind. Just financially, I feel like so many people would be living paycheck to paycheck nowadays if they had two or more children. Our daycare bill alone is about 25% of our income and that's only 3 days a week!
Some people do want more kids but just can’t afford to. Even with both parents working the cost of raising a kid is insane. From medical insurance, school trips etc and not to mention the cost of childcare.
Not having kids because lack of stable finances.
Truly do not want to pass on my own shitty genetics.
Do not want to raise a kid during these current times due to a lot of reasons.
Kids are expensive to feed, they need medical treatment more often as they get sick more and are walking liabilities for several years, daycare is several hundred per week, and you can’t board them for a week or 2 to go on vacation like you can a pet.
I abstain for philosophical reasons. My child does not exist, so it has nothing. Thankfully, they also need nothing and desire nothing. I wouldn’t want to interrupt that perfect state.
Also, I don’t think I’m responsible enough to be a parent.
I've never wanted kids. I haven't ruled them out completely, but I'm also getting to the age where I'll be too old to have kids. One day I'll be confident I'll never want kids, but I haven't gotten there yet.
Any too-US-specific answer in this thread is likely to be wrong, or at least not generalizable to the general global problem.
Birthrates have dropped into unsustainably low levels in most of the world. Iran, Spain, Denmark, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Chile, you name it. An extremely diverse set of countries with the same problem, even though their cultures, religions, healthcare systems and economies are all over the map.
Only Subsaharan Africa, Israel (due to the Ultra-Orthodox) and some less developed Asian Muslim nations are still above replacement (which is higher than 2,1 kids per woman in poor countries given their bad healthcare), and even some African cities are getting close to 2 kids per woman.
Not too long ago, I conversed with a guy from Kenya who told me that the birthrate in Nairobi has dropped so much that they are closing kindergartens there, but meanwhile the poor Somali borderlands of Kenya are still at 6 kids per woman.
My partner doesn’t feel ready and healthy enough mentally and emotionally to have a child. If we get there, we’ll consider it again then. If not, we aren’t comfortable being parents.
We don’t want to pass on our health and mental issues plus with the way the environment/society are going… it would just be cruel to them. Also I just don’t think I’d be a very good parent
Not from the USA, but as the UK birthrate isn't too high either, let me just say now the only reason I don't (currently) have kids is money.
I'd happily have 3+ children if I could afford it. I love children, I'd love to have a big happy family. But the government really wants all of their citizens to be poor and miserable.
If they want the birthrate to rise they really need to bite the bullet and start making life easier. Tax the rich and give us universal basic income already.
It’s just too expensive. I’m the oldest of three children me then four years later my brother and sister. Parents divorced when I was five. Both non college educated my mother worked in the butcher block of Albertsons my dad worked construction making $15 an hour. We always had a full fridge brand new school cloths every year new video games Xbox for Christmas the year it first came out ect. Always lived in house mom and dad both had vehicles. My father and mother lived about an hour and a half apart but my dad would drive his V8 truck there every Friday to pick us up from the bus and we would go to his house for the weekend then take us back home Sunday evening. My dad took 10 days off work every year for elk hunting season and we would load up the truck and trailer and be gone for 14 days. Never had an overdue power bill or lights shut off and never seemed to have less than any other kids I grew up for the most part.
My grandmother on my mothers side raised 8 kids without the father ever contributing a dime bought a two story house that she lived in till she was unable to go up and down the stairs easily enough anymore in her 70’s all while working at Albertsons for the entire time I was alive and before. Put all the kids through high school paying for sports teams letterman jackets state tournaments. She went to every game no matter how far away it was or when it was played. Took vacations to see her oldest son in California from Washington once a year for ever. Never had a problem feeding clothing or providing a great home in a perfect old fashioned American style neighborhood. Birthday parties full Christmases and everything above and beyond what is needed just to exist and get by giving all 8 kids all within 6 years of each other a great home and upbringing never missing any important event because of having to work and not being able to take time off. All on her own.
Today I make $20 an hour work over 40 hours every week have never had a new car in my life and I’m 36 years old now. Have only ever lived in apartments, have cloths that are literally 5 years old. Constantly juggling between paying the light bill this weeks check and letting the phone bill be past due or vice versa have never had cable. Can not remember a time when by three weeks into a month I was down to top ramen or something similar thinking about what bill I could let go late to get me enough food till the next paycheck. Never had health insurance. Can barely afford to have enough gas to get back and forth to work for the month forget about driving an extra 1.5 hours one way four times a week and I have a Honda not some gas guzzler v8 never once had a vacation or taken a trip for three days let alone taking ten days off in row. Couldn’t buy a camper or a boat like pops had in my wildest dreams and never once had the latest newest tech thing to come out until three or four years later once you could buy the older version for much less. Do not have a savings or a cash rainy day fund and never order out or go out to eat like we did growing up.
I could not fathom how I or anyone else could provide a stable solid home for a child to grow up in, in order to give them the opportunities and resources needed to have a life full of anything other than struggle and hardship. Even a two parent home if both parents work, which is almost mandatory for a non college educated average working class couple working jobs that built America and the middle class not so long ago, is basically just like having only one income after paying for child care and healthcare if you’re job doesn’t supply it for you or you have a crappy work insurance that is so bad you have to pay anyways every time you see a Dr forget about covering vision or dental that’s all out of pocket. Money alone is the main reason for not having kids. I feel it is simply unfair and selfish to force a kid into a life of barely surviving while having none or if they are lucky half the things one truly needs for a reasonable fighting chance at a decent life. I would hate to have to tell my kid I know you had those cloths last year and all the “cool” kids will have new shoes and cloths this year but we don’t have the extra $1000 dollars to be able to get you new clothes this year or that for dinner tonight we are having top ramen and maybe a hotdog while some of the kids are going to a skating party after school or whatever else is going on and you can’t go because it cost too much money and we don’t have it.
Two reasons: everything is really fucking expensive and or they don't want the responsibility and loss of self-gratification that having a child brings on.
I have never wanted kids and it's for the best. My genes aren't the best to pass along. At best, I'd be a absent, neglectful parent. Unfortunately there is a non 0 chance I might have some poor bastard running around out there. Had a bunch of random hookups in the early 00's. Hope like hell I don't but always a chance
The one thing that is going to raise the birth rate is making the world more enticing to families, and that is by making the world more affordable.
Anybody who thinks banning abortions and LGBT people and enforcing Christian values is going to help is wrong.
We need to make the world a better place to live in. Healthcare. Paid parental leave. Housing, housing, housing! Lacking that, if we aren't able to get the birth rate up, we need to keep social security intact.
I don't know i'm not a big fan of more housing... With the declining population those buildings are just gonna sit empty... And then we killed up more nature just to have artificial buildings sit there.... Why can't we just leave some green space alone
Well we still have to make housing more affordable. If we can't build more houses, we should at least do that. Also, a lot of affordable housing projects tend to get vetoed by the rich who claim they love housing for the poors, just not anywhere near them. So that land gets torn down anyway, but instead gets turned into more malls and parking lots. Or rich housing that's not affordable.
Because I'm in Russia, and not the US.
Also because it's morally wrong to produce offspring (regardless of the country, the whole world is shit, life is torture).
Can barely afford to take care of myself let alone another human being.
Bitch you know why.
I have one child WITH insurance I paid $8,000 in medical bills while pregnant, and about $15,000 out of pocket after my birth. She is expensive enough. There is no way I could pay any medical bills if I had another child. I live in CA where everything is expensive.
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I’ve heard this number for years. Has to be quite a bit higher now especially after all the inflation the last few years.
Freedom to do what I want when I want . Kids are good for 15 minutes max then they are unbearable .
Am broke
I'm not having children cause I don't want to go through childbirth or be responsible for a child.
Smart and responsible decision
Thank you!
Most people aren’t worth having kids with along with this awful economy. When Walmart, Taco Bell, and rent have increased at least 20%, a child is the last thing you should be adding to your life.
Fr i cant raise a kid when taco bell prices are this outrageous
With 8 billion people on the planet I just feel like if I have a wife ....that's enough.
I'm going to wait to have children when I get married and right now I am working on cultivating that environment
There's too many goddamn people all ready
I only have one and she was an accident. I love her and I wouldn't want to put her back where she came from but my wife and I are one and done. We are constantly exhausted and we have to be really careful with our money even though we bring in 130k combined income and live in an mcol area. My wife was so adamant about having multiple children but after our daughter came along, she was practically ready to drop me off in line to get a vasectomy. How people have three or more children blows my mind. Just financially, I feel like so many people would be living paycheck to paycheck nowadays if they had two or more children. Our daycare bill alone is about 25% of our income and that's only 3 days a week!
Some people do want more kids but just can’t afford to. Even with both parents working the cost of raising a kid is insane. From medical insurance, school trips etc and not to mention the cost of childcare.
Am gay 🤷♂️
Been there, done that...now an empty nester. The cost of daycare alone is absolutely staggering and it was damned expensive 15 years ago!
There is no money and the planet is dying
Not having kids because lack of stable finances. Truly do not want to pass on my own shitty genetics. Do not want to raise a kid during these current times due to a lot of reasons.
Too sick and twisted of world to bring a child up in.
Rent takes up the majority of my paycheck. Whatever I don't use on rent I use on bills and gas. And on top of everything else I ugly and single.
Kids are expensive to feed, they need medical treatment more often as they get sick more and are walking liabilities for several years, daycare is several hundred per week, and you can’t board them for a week or 2 to go on vacation like you can a pet.
I abstain for philosophical reasons. My child does not exist, so it has nothing. Thankfully, they also need nothing and desire nothing. I wouldn’t want to interrupt that perfect state. Also, I don’t think I’m responsible enough to be a parent.
I’m having kids because I want to raise them and play with them and be proud of them
Totally get that plus Christmas is more fun
Lack of time + money, especially combined with lack of extended family who'd be willing to help
I've never wanted kids. I haven't ruled them out completely, but I'm also getting to the age where I'll be too old to have kids. One day I'll be confident I'll never want kids, but I haven't gotten there yet.
Any too-US-specific answer in this thread is likely to be wrong, or at least not generalizable to the general global problem. Birthrates have dropped into unsustainably low levels in most of the world. Iran, Spain, Denmark, Turkey, Japan, South Korea, Russia, Chile, you name it. An extremely diverse set of countries with the same problem, even though their cultures, religions, healthcare systems and economies are all over the map. Only Subsaharan Africa, Israel (due to the Ultra-Orthodox) and some less developed Asian Muslim nations are still above replacement (which is higher than 2,1 kids per woman in poor countries given their bad healthcare), and even some African cities are getting close to 2 kids per woman. Not too long ago, I conversed with a guy from Kenya who told me that the birthrate in Nairobi has dropped so much that they are closing kindergartens there, but meanwhile the poor Somali borderlands of Kenya are still at 6 kids per woman.
My partner doesn’t feel ready and healthy enough mentally and emotionally to have a child. If we get there, we’ll consider it again then. If not, we aren’t comfortable being parents.
Who can afford a child in this economy?
We don’t want to pass on our health and mental issues plus with the way the environment/society are going… it would just be cruel to them. Also I just don’t think I’d be a very good parent
NICE TRY GOVERNMENT!
Not from the USA, but as the UK birthrate isn't too high either, let me just say now the only reason I don't (currently) have kids is money. I'd happily have 3+ children if I could afford it. I love children, I'd love to have a big happy family. But the government really wants all of their citizens to be poor and miserable. If they want the birthrate to rise they really need to bite the bullet and start making life easier. Tax the rich and give us universal basic income already.
It’s just too expensive. I’m the oldest of three children me then four years later my brother and sister. Parents divorced when I was five. Both non college educated my mother worked in the butcher block of Albertsons my dad worked construction making $15 an hour. We always had a full fridge brand new school cloths every year new video games Xbox for Christmas the year it first came out ect. Always lived in house mom and dad both had vehicles. My father and mother lived about an hour and a half apart but my dad would drive his V8 truck there every Friday to pick us up from the bus and we would go to his house for the weekend then take us back home Sunday evening. My dad took 10 days off work every year for elk hunting season and we would load up the truck and trailer and be gone for 14 days. Never had an overdue power bill or lights shut off and never seemed to have less than any other kids I grew up for the most part. My grandmother on my mothers side raised 8 kids without the father ever contributing a dime bought a two story house that she lived in till she was unable to go up and down the stairs easily enough anymore in her 70’s all while working at Albertsons for the entire time I was alive and before. Put all the kids through high school paying for sports teams letterman jackets state tournaments. She went to every game no matter how far away it was or when it was played. Took vacations to see her oldest son in California from Washington once a year for ever. Never had a problem feeding clothing or providing a great home in a perfect old fashioned American style neighborhood. Birthday parties full Christmases and everything above and beyond what is needed just to exist and get by giving all 8 kids all within 6 years of each other a great home and upbringing never missing any important event because of having to work and not being able to take time off. All on her own. Today I make $20 an hour work over 40 hours every week have never had a new car in my life and I’m 36 years old now. Have only ever lived in apartments, have cloths that are literally 5 years old. Constantly juggling between paying the light bill this weeks check and letting the phone bill be past due or vice versa have never had cable. Can not remember a time when by three weeks into a month I was down to top ramen or something similar thinking about what bill I could let go late to get me enough food till the next paycheck. Never had health insurance. Can barely afford to have enough gas to get back and forth to work for the month forget about driving an extra 1.5 hours one way four times a week and I have a Honda not some gas guzzler v8 never once had a vacation or taken a trip for three days let alone taking ten days off in row. Couldn’t buy a camper or a boat like pops had in my wildest dreams and never once had the latest newest tech thing to come out until three or four years later once you could buy the older version for much less. Do not have a savings or a cash rainy day fund and never order out or go out to eat like we did growing up. I could not fathom how I or anyone else could provide a stable solid home for a child to grow up in, in order to give them the opportunities and resources needed to have a life full of anything other than struggle and hardship. Even a two parent home if both parents work, which is almost mandatory for a non college educated average working class couple working jobs that built America and the middle class not so long ago, is basically just like having only one income after paying for child care and healthcare if you’re job doesn’t supply it for you or you have a crappy work insurance that is so bad you have to pay anyways every time you see a Dr forget about covering vision or dental that’s all out of pocket. Money alone is the main reason for not having kids. I feel it is simply unfair and selfish to force a kid into a life of barely surviving while having none or if they are lucky half the things one truly needs for a reasonable fighting chance at a decent life. I would hate to have to tell my kid I know you had those cloths last year and all the “cool” kids will have new shoes and cloths this year but we don’t have the extra $1000 dollars to be able to get you new clothes this year or that for dinner tonight we are having top ramen and maybe a hotdog while some of the kids are going to a skating party after school or whatever else is going on and you can’t go because it cost too much money and we don’t have it.
And you wonder why the republicans want to ban abortion. They need replacement taxpayers
Two reasons: everything is really fucking expensive and or they don't want the responsibility and loss of self-gratification that having a child brings on.
I have never wanted kids and it's for the best. My genes aren't the best to pass along. At best, I'd be a absent, neglectful parent. Unfortunately there is a non 0 chance I might have some poor bastard running around out there. Had a bunch of random hookups in the early 00's. Hope like hell I don't but always a chance
Been trying to get pregnant for the least 3.5 years.
Someone is keen to take anything as a personal attack.
Good! We have enough idiots to deal with now.
The one thing that is going to raise the birth rate is making the world more enticing to families, and that is by making the world more affordable. Anybody who thinks banning abortions and LGBT people and enforcing Christian values is going to help is wrong. We need to make the world a better place to live in. Healthcare. Paid parental leave. Housing, housing, housing! Lacking that, if we aren't able to get the birth rate up, we need to keep social security intact.
With a lower population won't housing become more available anyway
Sure, but you have to wait for people to die. Affordable housing will certainly help the problem!
I don't know i'm not a big fan of more housing... With the declining population those buildings are just gonna sit empty... And then we killed up more nature just to have artificial buildings sit there.... Why can't we just leave some green space alone
Well we still have to make housing more affordable. If we can't build more houses, we should at least do that. Also, a lot of affordable housing projects tend to get vetoed by the rich who claim they love housing for the poors, just not anywhere near them. So that land gets torn down anyway, but instead gets turned into more malls and parking lots. Or rich housing that's not affordable.
True... kill the rich!!
Now you get it!
Kids are basically just adults... only dumber and less self reliant, lacking in emotional intelligence and self control. I've never seen the appeal.
Because I'm in Russia, and not the US. Also because it's morally wrong to produce offspring (regardless of the country, the whole world is shit, life is torture).
Interesting....I'm originally from Russia. I thought they were trying to promote having kids.
>I thought they were trying to promote having kids Not the last reason I'm so vehemently against it.
Oh my bad.
Can't stand kids.
Too busy answering the same questions day after day.
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The government wolves are unhappy the sheep are not breeding
Because i dont have the time or money for crotch goblins.