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“A” reason?

Given the post you’re replying to, it seems you’re implying a specific reason, but what if it’s a different one? How about “I love children but having kids is super expensive”?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Income_and_fertility

> There is generally an inverse correlation between monetary income and the total fertility rate within and between nations.

https://www.statista.com/statistics/241530/birth-rate-by-fam...

> In 2021, the birth rate in the United States was highest in families that had under 10,000 U.S. dollars in income per year

And a few thousands more links.

> How about “I love children but having kids is super expensive”?

always surprises me when ppl say this when they clearly observe the opposite in action. whats going on here.

Every mouth to feed costs more. Baby formula seems like a racket. Diapers are expensive.

My oldest will need a laptop for school next year. It isn't optional or provided.

Maybe you need a bigger car because car seats take up a lot of room.

What if your kid decides they want to join a sports team? A friend of a friend told me they did the math on a year of competitive swimming. It was $10,000 by the time they were done with equipment and travel.

A trip to the dentist for my family of four is about $1000 for just cleanings. Braces for my oldest were $3000 if I could pay cash or $4000 to finance. You could skip dental care, but some might consider that neglect.

What if the school tells you to get your child tested? That costs about $3000 in my part of the world. Half of the kids on my block are neurodivergent somehow. What do you do?

In a less well off part of the world, most of these "concerns" probably disappear. I think we have pretty high expectations of parents that aren't poor.

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The highest income you have, the more pressured you are to give them an expensive education, activities, etc. Everyone want their kids to do at least as well as themselves.

So it's expensive no matter what income bracket you're in.

Yeah, I don't envy the 30 year olds who can't buy an house because it's become unaffordable, made even harder by many only getting freelance jobs.

Also: having many children used to be an insurance policy, but as countries become more developed it's less necessary.