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Comment by isodev

3 days ago

> because I have to raise two young children

It’s a missed opportunity for posts like the link to also mention and reinforce the importance of family planning. Many go into setting up a family because of peer pressure without assessing that it’s a very long term commitment. I’m sure you’re doing the best you can, of course. Maybe raising awareness that having kids is no longer an imperative for humans living in the 21st century could be something we do more of.

31 comments

isodev

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lm28469  3 days ago

If you wait until everything is planned, ready and accounted for you'll never have kids.

  • SoftTalker  3 days ago

    Even if you reach that point, you're likely now at the age where fertility problems become a real issue.

    If you want to have kids do it when you're in your early 20s.

    • wat10000  3 days ago

      This sort of "hurry up or it'll be too late" attitude is a great way to figure out that you don't want to have kids after it's too late to make that choice.

    • isodev  3 days ago

      This is factually false :) and if you’re really worried, there are many options available to you to preserve what you will need or consider adoption - there are so many humans being born without a family after all.

      7 replies →

  • dheera  3 days ago

    > you'll never have kids

    Which is also OK. It's financially smart to realize you don't have the resources and not have kids.

    If {some subset of the government, rich people, people who control the economy} want more people to have kids, which is something I keep hearing from that class of people: They need to collectively figure out how to put more money into the pockets of people. Higher salaries, drastic tax cuts, cheaper housing, more people will be financially ready and more kids will happen as a result. Also, work hours need to be standardized at 4 hours/day per person OR costs of living need to be designed that 1 parental income is enough.

    • toxik  3 days ago

      I think those people realize this, but it's a bit like global warming. They like their lifestyles.

    • em-bee  3 days ago

      i agree with most of your points, especially the reduction of work hours, but cost is not the issue that keeps people from having kids. it's actually the reverse. the more money people have, the less likely they have kids.

      the problem is lifestyle and career demands.

      7 replies →

    • lm28469  2 days ago

      > Which is also OK. It's financially smart to realize you don't have the resources and not have kids.

      It's sad to see people so deep in the consumerist rat race that giving life is seen as a cell in their life's financial excel sheet.

      Weirdly enough people who actually don't have money are the one having the most kids. And people who lived pretty much from 300k years ago until the ~1950s had it worse than you yet they had more kids. People making 1m a year have less kids than people working in fucking coal mines 100 years ago.

      We don't have less kids because we're poorer than 50 years ago, we have less kids because we drunk way too much capitalist kool aid and put traveling, buying shit, careers, money in front of everything else on our list of priorities: https://www.wsj.com/articles/americans-pull-back-from-values...

      2 replies →

em-bee  3 days ago

having kids is no longer an imperative for humans living in the 21st century

on the contrary. global population growth will plateau in a few decades, and negative population growth is already a problem in many countries, like all western countries, south korea, and also china.