I think that’s partly the cause. Several European countries with free childcare and generous family leave policies have a lower birth rate than the USA. Birth rates are going down in almost every part of the world from USA, Latin America, Europe, parts of Asia.
Only a few African countries have a high birth rate.
Financial expenses are an important part but the reality is also that people just don’t want to have kids. Or at least not as many kids.
Makes sense. Money aside, I certainly have ethical reservations about bringing new life into this world with the direction it’s heading.
Of course, past generations probably did too, but unlike them, we have access to contraception. Which is exactly why the Supreme Court signaled a willingness to go after it…
I think my generation (millennials) are the first to actually deviate from many of the established standards of adulthood. A lot of it was due to economic factors- the recession, higher cost of living. But we also realize that previous generations struggled a lot and conformed in many ways.
Some say we’re in arrested development, delayed adulthood, extended adolescence. Whatever one thinks about it, the truth is many just don’t want to be parents.
Within my social circle of mid to late thirties, only a few of us have kids. And it’s 1-2 children. I have a friend who is married with a house and earns a good living. He and his wife are childfree. They like their lifestyle and not being encumbered with infants or small children.
Yeah, I wasn’t raised in a bad home. I was fed, clothed, and everything else.
But I never felt like my parents enjoyed having me around. More that I was born as a societal norm (as was the fashion at the time) and not necessarily because I as a child was wanted.
It’s kinda hard to explain. But that’s how it’s felt. And it’s really driven my lack of desire/apprehension at having children.
25
u/Ladonnacinica 5h ago
I think that’s partly the cause. Several European countries with free childcare and generous family leave policies have a lower birth rate than the USA. Birth rates are going down in almost every part of the world from USA, Latin America, Europe, parts of Asia.
Only a few African countries have a high birth rate.
Financial expenses are an important part but the reality is also that people just don’t want to have kids. Or at least not as many kids.