To have kids or not to? Your opinion from economy perspective

[shield132]

What title says,

unless one is well off himself one should not be having kids, this is my opinion.

What about you?

I agree with you. In my country, there are lots of poor parents who can't provide not only a good education and support for their children, they can't provide food for them and in worse cases, they force their children to work and in the worst situations, parents force their children to feed the family from an early age.
In my country, it's also very popular that young people marry and they make a kid despite the fact that they can't feed them, they do it because they hope that their mother and father will help them into this. I do not like this idea too. I personally would love to have kids but I am young and I don't have a very high income, I also don't want to get help from others because I do not want to be dependent on anybody, so I'll do it in a few years when I'll have enough money to take a good care of 4-5 family members alone.

[yhiaali3]

This is your personal opinion, and we're sure to find many different opinions here, depending on each person's way of thinking....
From a purely economic perspective, the poor or even the middle-class should never have children. Only the wealthy should, but this is completely far from reality.

Societies and civilizations cannot be built this way. If everyone thought the same way, humanity would become extinct within a few centuries. Everyone has the right to have children (the poor, the rich, and the middle-class).

Not everyone can be rich, just as not everyone can be engineers, doctors, and scientists. Diversity must exist in every society to ensure the continuity of life.

[bakasabo]

Same, but as I keep working hard and make myself well off, it drives me away to have kids because I keep thinking how to make my life better.

In my opinion, the minimum salary before you can have a baby is making at least 3x of minimum salary in your country. 1x minimum salary for one person, so the other 2x for a spouse and a baby..

If such calculation would really work, people would never have babies. Imo, having a baby or not should not be valued from if I could effort  to have a baby or not. Poop people have more than 2 or 3 children and manage to survive. Some millionaires cant handle expenses on one child. You can still have a child and earn one minimum salary. It will be difficult to raise, but your child will love you anyway, if you have one minimum salary or 3x. If you dont earn a lot, it just means that you not buy new or top class accessories, toys, clothes.

Besides, having a child is a huge motivator to earn more. I should be “I have a child I must earn more now” > “I earn a lot, now I can have a child”. Since my child was born, my salary has increased 2x, but my monthly income 2.3x. Being a father and wish to buy everything best for mu child motivated me for action.

[libert19]

I am baffled by some of answers here. To take care of you old age, God will look after children, childrens bring blessings. I see some cultural brainwashing here.

To be fair that means "poor people should not be having any kids", when you say it like that, do you see how harsh it is?

I meant well-off = enough means for a comfortable living — is that too much to ask?

[Odohu]

What title says,

unless one is well off himself one should not be having kids, this is my opinion.

What about you?

I don't share in same opinion because the advantages of having kids is more than not having; I'm speaking from an African perspective where bloodlines and family lineage is important. What is bad is giving birth to too many kids especially more than you can carter for. The average family in my city has three kids which is considered comfortable to raise and the average earning calculated from the minimum wage can support. 

[Felicity_Tide]

~snip

What about you?

I feel the same honestly, but at least having something decent to cater for someone else. Financial capability should determine how many kids a person should have, and not the other way round. I see people giving birth to children in an even/odd format to either make it perfect, rather than giving birth to what they can actually take care of.

The world is filled with too many problems already, and most of the problems are caused by certain people who probably didn't enjoy certain things that every decent childhood ought to have enjoyed. Every child deserves a decent childhood after all, but a decent childhood doesn't come cheap either.

[tabas]

What title says,

unless one is well off himself one should not be having kids, this is my opinion.

What about you?

I respect both people that aspire to own and not to own kids. Those that want to have kids, it's part of their master plan that they've been dreaming of. While those who don't have plans of having one, it's probably because of their personal economy isn't enough to sustain a family and it's costly to support a baby until they're all grown up. And the responsibility of being a parent doesn't stop even when they get older and become married. It's there to last forever for as long as we can, until we're dead. What my parents told me, as long as I am ready, emotionally, financially and spiritually, I should start my own family with kids.

[goldkingcoiner]

Same, but as I keep working hard and make myself well off, it drives me away to have kids because I keep thinking how to make my life better.

In my opinion, the minimum salary before you can have a baby is making at least 3x of minimum salary in your country. 1x minimum salary for one person, so the other 2x for a spouse and a baby.

But, with such amount you can only live minimum, you can't enjoy your life because you keep thinking to save money for your kids needs in the future. Either you or your spouse will want the best for your kids, hence you can't save money when you have a family.

Example you have $20,000 and your kids will enter school, you have two options: public school or private school. Public school is free, private school have 3 tiers, the lowest tier you need to spend $5,000 that cover everything, middle tier cost you $15,000 and the highest tier cost you $30,000.

People will choose the middle tier because they can afford rather than thinking to grow their wealth.

Not many people said this, personally I think marriage is a big scam.

I agree. Life is hard enough as it is, so what is the point in having children, which demand enormous amounts of time and money? Or even marrying, which will only stress you out emotionally and leave you a total mess in the end?

People are driven by their parents/grandparents selfishly demanding that they marry and have children. And your own body's biology betrays you by making you attracted to the opposite sex and have offspring.

I want to live life for myself, not for the "colony". I am not an ant.

[uneng]

Previously it was a good idea to have lots of children, because they were useful as labor force for the family at countryside. Moreover, culturally speaking, it was a signal of fertility and masculinity for men to have many children. However, nowadays people are much more focused on themselves, caring little with everyone else, what includes potential children.

It's a phenomenon of our days where people are extremely egoistical and selfish. As consequence, there is little room for children... In previous times people weren't even concerned if they had enough financial conditions to raise a family, but they always managed to do so somehow.

Another possibility is that people had stronger bounds before, what allowed them to have genuine desire for beginning a family. Nowadays people get bored of each other too fast and bounds aren't for real.

[batang_bitcoin]

I am baffled by some of answers here. To take care of you old age, God will look after children, childrens bring blessings. I see some cultural brainwashing here.

That's some old cultural belief from our grandparents and it shouldn't be tolerated by us. We're in the new age and we have to let our kids enjoy what they want to do when they get older. Or pretty much if you can't afford a home for the aged when you get older, you shouldn't let your kids take care of you when you get old. Unless, your kid loves you so much and volunteers to do it. But, the best thing to do is to make them enjoy their lives because we're past our primes and we have to let them feel that there is so much for this world for them to discover.

[SUPERSAIAN]

Reproduction and proceed are laws of nature, so I believe it's necessary to have children. It's important to have children before you get too old. No matter how bad your financial situation, there's a way. But I'd rather have a child, whether I'm financially well off or not, than regret not having children when you're too old. Life has always been difficult, so ignore the difficulties and have children to continue your lineage.

[Ziskinberg]

And regarding spouse 'needs' to be working in order to make child's life comfortable, such couple are better off not having kid in first place and should continue to live their lives comfortably instead of sacrificing their comfort by creating a kid.

How old are you by the way… maybe you’re still too young and just enjoying the life of being single. But once you get older and start looking for a more serious and peaceful life, you’ll understand that having kids is what really makes life complete.

Even rich people like celebrities who can’t have kids of their own, no matter how much money they have, end up adopting because they want to experience raising a child and to be called parents. If you’re not in that position, you won’t really understand.

Same, but as I keep working hard and make myself well off, it drives me away to have kids because I keep thinking how to make my life better.

With that kind of mentality you might end up not getting married or not having kids at all. Sometimes we need to look at the brighter side. I know people who struggled a lot when they were single, but once they got married and had kids their finances improved because they were inspired. They worked harder for their family.

[Botnake]

What title says,

unless one is well off himself one should not be having kids, this is my opinion.

What about you?

While financial stability is a helpful tool in raising a kid, but financial instability isn’t a barrier to raise a good kid. It’s more on decision making, emotional preparedness and personal values that parents chose to believe since they also adopt it from their great ancestors.

So if you decide to have a child, know that having sufficient amount of finances is a crucial factor but it isn’t a sole determiner that will guarantee raising a good life for that child. There are still a lot of factors to consider, and every parent or couple should work on it to ensure a healthy and brighter future of their child.

[freedomgo]

What title says,

unless one is well off himself one should not be having kids, this is my opinion.

What about you?

Well, that’s a good mindset but I don’t totally rely on a single thought like that. Having a kid is a blessing, it’s an opportunity for us parents to become better and responsible guardians throughout our child’s journey. And having a kid creates a different level of joy and life’s satisfaction, as you may get tired in life but once you see your child, it will definitely change your mood and even improve your life’s perspective.

I’d see having a child is an obligation, like we are obligated to give them a happy and healthy life, and pour them all our love and affection, and that’s how parents should be to their kids.

[libert19]

Previously it was a good idea to have lots of children, because they were useful as labor force for the family at countryside. Moreover, culturally speaking, it was a signal of fertility and masculinity for men to have many children. However, nowadays people are much more focused on themselves, caring little with everyone else, what includes potential children.

It's a phenomenon of our days where people are extremely egoistical and selfish. As consequence, there is little room for children...

You say people are egotistical and selfish to not have kids meanwhile at the start of your comment, you mention, having children was good idea so they could be used as working force — you realize how absurd that sounds?

[Xcode7]

What title says,

unless one is well off himself one should not be having kids, this is my opinion.

What about you?

I don't think so. On the contrary, if we're not rich, we should have children to be more motivated to earn enough money to meet all our children's needs.

That's for the short term, but in our old age, having children will greatly benefit us. It's not about expecting anything in return, but the world works that way. When we give everything to our children, we will receive the same in return someday.

[mich]

Well I do think if people want to have kids then they can have the kids. We must make sure the human race does go on and we need to have people to make kids.
Not all people in this world are well off. So if we made it so only a person with alot of money or is well off can have kids I do not think it is right.
I do not think a person who does live on a street or is sick should have kids. It will not be fair for those kids to have them in a life like that.

[Helena Yu]

If such calculation would really work, people would never have babies. Imo, having a baby or not should not be valued from if I could effort  to have a baby or not. Poop people have more than 2 or 3 children and manage to survive. Some millionaires cant handle expenses on one child. You can still have a child and earn one minimum salary. It will be difficult to raise, but your child will love you anyway, if you have one minimum salary or 3x. If you dont earn a lot, it just means that you not buy new or top class accessories, toys, clothes.

It's not about just "surviving", it's about to live with "minimum needs", not comfortable nor luxury.

If the mother can't breastfeed due to unexpected situation, you must able to buy a good quality formula milk and drink based on the serving size. Don't reduce the serving size due to frugal as your excuse, also don't replace it with condensed milk.

As a human we need to eat enough protein, vegetables and fruits, remember "enough" not just having a small piece of chicken meat, a small serving vegetable, a piece of dragon fruit. But it should meet the minimum need.

Don't think like this "I will bring enough protein, vegetables and fruits to my wife and child, it's okay for me just to eat a big bowl of rice and small chicken", that's stupid. You're working, which mean you should be more healthy than them, if you eat like that, you will sick and can't go work, in the end it ruins everything.

People are driven by their parents/grandparents selfishly demanding that they marry and have children.

Yep, it's very unfortunate.

If the kids did wrong, the kids are forced to obey what their parents said.
If the parents/grandparents did wrong, then the kids correct it, the parents/grandparents won't accept it and say the kids is rebellious.

With that kind of mentality you might end up not getting married or not having kids at all. Sometimes we need to look at the brighter side. I know people who struggled a lot when they were single, but once they got married and had kids their finances improved because they were inspired. They worked harder for their family.

Probably, depends on how much my wealth and woman that loves me.

If I'm rich, she's rich and not a feminist, that's one step closer for serious relationship.

That's for the short term, but in our old age, having children will greatly benefit us. It's not about expecting anything in return, but the world works that way. When we give everything to our children, we will receive the same in return someday.

IF, someday your children not give anything back to you when you're old, what would be your reaction?

[Bitco55]

Well it depends... Personally I think it depends. You can't decide to not have kids till the economy becomes better, what if the economy never becomes better? Or at least never becomes better during your time on earth, are you never going to have kids then? But at the same time, having kids, not just 1, 2, or 3, but over 5, 6 and so on, when you're not capable of taking care of all of them is bad. Why bring them all into the world only for them to suffer?  You should rather leave them where they were.

So, I'd say no matter how tough the economy is, a person can raise a child or 2. Even before getting married and having children, you should save for your children. No matter how little you earn, one should be able to put down a thing or two for their children in the future. And also, try not to give birth to many children.

[DeathAngel]

If you can’t afford kids it’s probably not the best idea to have them yet. Raising children is expensive & struggling to cover basics like food, housing & healthcare can make life harder for both the parents & the child. It doesn’t mean you should never have kids but waiting until you’re more stable financially usually gives the child a better start & reduces stress for everyone.