<p>I dearly love my kids, and kinda wish I had more ( although I do think if I had been older I could have been a wiser parent), but if I don’t ever have grandchildren, it could be OK.
But I can still go to visit my grand pets.:)</p>
<p>The middle class is the life blood of any society. It is sad to hear it commiting Hara Kiri as the only the very rich or very poor don’t have an economic disincentive to have enough children. So many people at work have skipped having kids altogether or have stopped after one. Don’t know a single relative, friend, or someone in our neighborhood with more than four…</p>
<p>BINGO…have one parent pay the other to stay at home…pick a wage earner, pick a primary childcare provider who is a genetic material contributor…watch society improve.</p>
<p>I have 7 kids. IMO these estimates are way too high. Really, the only expensive thing about raising kids is paying for college. (Well, that and the orthodontist!) I know lots of folks with big families and most of them aren’t well-off by any means. They just live frugally. The kids don’t do tons of activities/lessons/sports. They don’t go to Disney World or on ski or beach vacations. They don’t eat out or have cleaning ladies or lawn services. They don’t have new cars, fancy houses or expensive furniture. They don’t throw over-the-top birthday parties or give lavish holiday gifts. Some of their kids don’t even get to go to the orthodontist. However, I don’t think any of these kids would trade their sibs to have any of those things.</p>
<p>You could not have paid either of my parents to stay home with me. They liked working.</p>
<p>My mom only had one, dad had two but I’m not close to my sister and we share nothing more than done DNA. Wish I would have had a sibling but meh. My friends are my family.</p>
<p>Same here. My mom was a stay at home until my brother and I reached college, but well before that she was looking for at least some sort of job to keep herself busy. By the time I was in kindergarten my mom was ecstatic to finally be able to get a full time engineering job again (although getting back into the field after a seven year absence was really difficult).</p>
<p>I have kids in daycare right now. I do not agree with mini or others who believe my kids would turn out better if one of us stayed home with them rather than going to daycare. Daycare is an absolutely incredibly experience for my kids. They enjoy it, learn far more than they would at home, experience things that they wouldn’t experience at home, and it’s an overall good part of their childhood.</p>
<p>My wife, while I love her dearly, wouldn’t make a great stay at home wife. And we can’t live on her income if I were to stay at home.</p>
<p>I really should have found a better article. While I would agree that kids take an enormous outlay of money & time, what I am interested in more I think is why we choose to have kids.</p>
<p>Do we consider it a intrinsic piece of becoming an adult?
But then what about those whose children are more “accessories”?
If we chose to contribute to the world in a way that doesn’t allow for great material compensation, can we afford to have kids?</p>
<p>Depends. If a person works at a low wage job, and his/her spouse also work at a low wage job, and if the jobs take place during the same hours so both parents are out of the house at the same time, and if none of the grandparents are interested in raising a child, I think that family is not financially able to have kids.</p>
<p>But you don’t need a lot of money to raise kids, as long as you have time.</p>
<p>I totally disagree with forcing either parent to stay home instead of working. Some enjoy full time parenting but most would like time in a more intellectually stimulating environment. Too many women were forced by society in past generations to stay at home (it was a sign the H couldn’t provide for his family if his wife had to work). My own neighborhood ladies kaffe klatched daily to have adults to talk to (and they discussed their own kids, not gossip- it was impossible to tell your mom “soandso’s mom lets her” because they would have discussed it and all agreed “no”).</p>
<p>The title DNA… led me to believe this was about being unable to change physicl health et al because of DNA.</p>
<p>I work at a daycare center. It’s a good one. I know many have no choice but if there is a choice, I’d say stay at home with your kids. Even the best daycares are no substitute for a parent.</p>
<p>I went to a home day care. I still talk to my “babysitter”. She was like a third parent to me growing up. I truly, truly disagree that parents are always better than a day care. I know too many sh**ty parents. Many of the mothers who come through my shelter have zero interest in raising their children. I can only hope these kids go to a day care to at least get SOME structure, discipline, etc. Heck, many of the women are illiterate… at least at day care they could get exposure to books and such.</p>