I feel seen… If I were asked “what’s the ideal family size?” I would answer “2”. Because that way you don’t have one kid flying solo and at the same time mom and dad aren’t outnumbered.
That being said, how many have I personally had? 0. Lots of different reasons for it. I was RESPONSIBLE for one after getting married to a single mom (bio dad died), not the same as having my own.
Having my own now is increasingly unlikely as we get older and I had a heart attack and open heart surgery.
As someone fortunate enough to have a well paying job, I can’t imagine ever having a child. The amount of stress on top of my job in addition to the extremely high cost of raising a child would just push me over the edge, and that’s ignoring the fact that my current home can’t really accommodate another (our second bedroom is my office, no clue how we’d make that work since I do my job from there).
I think it’s honestly a combination of two things: a cost of living that continues to increase faster than our wages, and an ever increasing expectation from workplaces on employees. At one point, it was possible (and common) to have a single working member of the family support the other members on their own. These days, you’d have to be pretty much a 1%er to afford that, at least in more urban areas.
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I feel seen… If I were asked “what’s the ideal family size?” I would answer “2”. Because that way you don’t have one kid flying solo and at the same time mom and dad aren’t outnumbered.
That being said, how many have I personally had? 0. Lots of different reasons for it. I was RESPONSIBLE for one after getting married to a single mom (bio dad died), not the same as having my own.
Having my own now is increasingly unlikely as we get older and I had a heart attack and open heart surgery.
The ideal size is zero.
I mean, give the GOP time and no one can afford a family
It’s ironic that they tend to be the ones screaming about ‘white babies.’
Right?!?
My data point of one family agrees.
Reality gets in the way of dreams.
People keep saying culture but living through the recession as a Millennial
Most of us are suffering and lonely because we’re poor, and everyone else wants to ignore it
As someone fortunate enough to have a well paying job, I can’t imagine ever having a child. The amount of stress on top of my job in addition to the extremely high cost of raising a child would just push me over the edge, and that’s ignoring the fact that my current home can’t really accommodate another (our second bedroom is my office, no clue how we’d make that work since I do my job from there).
I think it’s honestly a combination of two things: a cost of living that continues to increase faster than our wages, and an ever increasing expectation from workplaces on employees. At one point, it was possible (and common) to have a single working member of the family support the other members on their own. These days, you’d have to be pretty much a 1%er to afford that, at least in more urban areas.
I’m a late Gen X with 3, but I see Millenials who got the short straw on housing and jobs who struggle to pay for 1.
Given that you can’t let kids run feral and live off the land anymore, people Don’t have them because they are expensive.
This study was funded by a grant from the Fondation for Obviousness.