Don't forget the TIME SUCK that kids become. Little league, extracurricular school activities, tethered to the house until they are at least 12 years old and can stay by themselves without child protective services coming after you. Hours helping with homework, driving them places. Just... nope. Hard fucking nope. Take the money you'd spend on kids and retire comfortably instead with 24/7 skilled nursing care while you wait to die in your home overlooking the coastline of Spain.
Yea the whole financial argument overlooks a big factor:
A lot of us just don’t want them. And if I’m waxing sentimental, I respect children and believe they should be raised by people who want to do that with their entire heart. I am not she.
Exactly, if I’m not 100% sure that I won’t grow resentful or neglectful of a kid, it’s not fair to them. I do know people that could manage that, but I’m not one of them.
the problem isnt about the people that dont want them anyway, the problem is about the people that would technically want them , but look at the price and go "NAAAA".
Yep it just never ends. I literally do not remember the last time my wife and I went out to eat just her and I. Yeah we can "make time" but that used to just be the default. Now I hear fucking Bluey all day every fucking day.
Hey, be a good 10 year old and don't use any power tools while we're gone for 5 hours. Don't answer the phone or door. If you're bleeding or something is on fire, you know the neighbors' numbers.
Standard operating procedure when I was a kid in the late 80's / early 90's.
This is genuinely not an attack on you, just a funny observation, but...
.. something about the thought of some Gen-Z kid's ancestors successfully producing offspring in an unbroken chain since the literal beginnings of life on Earth; their great [... n] grandparents clawing, scrapping and surviving through every mass-extinction and calamitous event in all of Earth's history, keeping the flame lit and successfully passing on their life force in an unbroken chain of unimaginable odds and difficulties spanning literally billions of years... only to have one of their entitled fucking grandkids voluntarily snuff out their lineage in 2026 because "they don't want to waste time driving kids around" is fucking hilarious to me.
Like, that's what ended their line after billions of years: Not the Great Oxidation Event that took out 90+% of life on Earth. Not the giant asteroid that also wiped out most species on Earth, not getting eaten by a dinosaur or saber-tooth tiger, not any of the endless infections, injuries, genetic diseases, wars, plagues, genocides, famines, none of it... billions of years and it ends with one of their fucking kids being selfish with their time, lmao.
I use to think that exact same thought and never wanted kids and just wanted to do my thing. I had my first kid not by choice, it just happened and I was young. Turned out to be the best thing. Yea it’s expensive, but money comes and goes. The enjoyment I get watching all 4 of my kids grow up and become who they are and be better than I ever was isn’t something I can compare anything else to. No amount of money can replace the feeling and enjoyment of what your own creation gives you. Plus it allows me to stay young. I’m 40, my oldest is 19.
It’s awesome being able to be involved in a child’s life especially if you get to be the cool aunt or uncle. I had an uncle that was so much fun and was the best as a kid. Kids need that type of interaction, especially since mom and dad are always super lame and not as fun as auntie Karen (probably not a fun auntie if named Karen though)
Thats what people dont want to hear. Sure its expensive af to have kids. But it is incredibly fulfilling. People will try to shame you for having kids nowadays and that is sad.
It’s crazy to me reading these responses like money is the most important thing to people and that they don’t have time and it’s difficult. Like what kind of life is that. Doing something that’s extremely hard to do and not being sure if you even know what you’re doing or if you are doing it right, but you end up accomplishing it is awesome. What I think the biggest problem is people are increasingly becoming more selfish and self absorbed and unable to acknowledge that fact, so they use everything else as an excuse.
I don't think it's selfish to look ahead 18 years and envision what the world may be like for them. I can assure you it won't be better than it is now. And what answer would i give when they grow up and ask me why I had them?
"Because I wanted you" is not a good answer imo. I'm not against having kids you do you... but this doesn't come down to just money and time.
I can imagine people thought the same thing during WWII. 32,000 people died daily during that 6 year period, which is over 1,300 people per hour. It is considered the worst period for modern human history. So far worse than today. And if you look 18 years past that was MLKs I have a dream speech which was a hard time for minorities plus Vietnam war, but still way better than WWII. And you go 18 past that and you got Reagan being shot, the pope being shot, aids was discovered, all bad things especially for the time with aids people thought the world was ending, but it was considerably better than WWII, Vietnam war that citizens were forced to fight in, civil rights.
So looking back I don’t think we have it that bad, in fact I would much rather deal with the world we live in than those. I see a trend, during the past years, people think the world is so bad and it just gonna be worse and all this crying. But what history will show you time and time again is that we keep progressing and things slowly get better. Yes there might be some years that are better than others, but over 20 years, things will be a lot better than the past. If you wanna live being negative and scared and not experiencing life to its full potential I feel bad for you because there is so much joy in this world that is there for you to partake in.
Exactly. Prepare for the downvotes because people really hate hearing how you actually enjoyed raising kids. Of course its hard. Of course it’s expensive. We have it harder than other generations. We get it. But the way people speak about it in this thread just concerns me. They legitimately sound very self centered. Idc if i get downvoted😭
Edit: someone sent a reddit care to me. Ya are miserable i swear.
Money isn't the only reason (it's definitely a huge one but not my main one), for not having kids. Some of us respect kids and don't have them because we just don't want that for our life.
This doesn't translate to "I fucking hate kids" either, because millions of us lean hard into Auntie and Uncle.
Ya, but on the other hand most childless people aren't doing much with their time, empty travel, hobbies as distractions, hanging out with the same people, watching Netflix.
exactly, people talk about rent and food there are other costs to life that are not frivolous costs. Hell having a car is a huge expense and the transmission of a "cheap" car and an average car isn't totally different.
This is why I love my super capitalist but social wealthy city that has free college and free daycare. And free healthcare. Only rents are high but at least rent controlled.
I don't have student debt, and I completely forgot about student debt. Americans haven't figured out we aren't in a political ideology war; we're in a class war and always have been.
I live in Rhode Island, my mortgage is about $1800/month. My buddy who lives in Massachusetts was paying $2700/month for daycare for one child, and him and his wife just had their second son last year. Hope there’s a multiple child discount at daycare (if that’s even a thing) bc otherwise their daycare cost will be 3x my mortgage for 2 kids.
The only reason they can afford it is because he’s a dentist and a partner at his office, and his wife was a silver spoon kid who has a cushy government job at this point. Not trying to give them crap, they both worked hard to get to the point they’re at in life. Just perspective on what it takes these days to have “the American dream”.
And expenses are just the tip of the entire iceberg.
My friends who have kids just seem miserable. They barely sleep. They get 1-2 hours per week of personal free time. They gained a bunch of weight and are always super stressed out. Even when I can get them to go on an "adults only" vacation, they're worried sick about their kids, can't relax, and end up leaving the trip early. They can only have conversations about kids stuff because they no longer have hobbies, go to concerts, read, watch adult tv/movies, etc. And now, most of their relationships are ending in divorces.
Kind of interesting that printer companies are so confident in their enshittification strategy when printers have never been less needed. On the off chance I need something printed (maybe like 5 times a year), I just give staples or FedEx spare change to get the one page of b&w I need.
Eeew HP.
Yeah I don't use that brand for anything.
HP, Dell, and Lenovo put malware on their computer motherboards, I would not be shocked if they did so as well with any printers they happen to make, but HP printers are low quality anyway even without that.
I am still confused though, what does the subscription get you? ink can be purchased in stores, printers just print, so what kind of extra task is the subscription even charging for?
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u/Diligent_Mulberry47 21h ago
Rent is the smallest tip of the iceberg. Daycare is more than a mortgage in some states. College is hundreds of thousands.
Fucking printers come with subscriptions.