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Would you consider being childless for economic reasons?

Lark

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Would you consider remaining childless for economic reasons? I'm curious because this morning someone I know was talking to be about the relative economic and political powers of demographics without children or for whom children are an irrelevence.
 

kyuuei

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I absolutely would and do. It is not my MAJOR motivator for not having children.. but it is major.
 

Savage Idealist

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Children cost money. A lot of money. I think collectively it's like $20,000 or something over thier childhood and teens. And in addition to that lost money is also time spent raising the kid. Time that could be spent doing more for oneself. Therefore I personally have no intention of having kids unless I've made millions as a famous writer. Otherwise I'll remain childess (or single if I have to) in order to make myself economically better off.
 

kyuuei

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^ That number is way under estimated.. unless you're living extremely meagerly and never buy the kid anything outside essentials for most of its life.. And it never has to go to the doctors.. or breaks anything.. or goes to stellar schools.. or pre-schools.. and someone sprung the bill for its delivery..

But with that said.. People find a way to make things happen all of the time. Would you feel your child would be less satisfied with you as a parent unless you made enough money to shower it in what it wants and needs? We lived a very poor life growing up, but.. I still highly enjoyed my childhood. Surely economics isn't all that holds you back?
 

Elfboy

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of course. having children before one has the means to be a good provider is impulsive, irresponsible and not fair at all to one's children
 

Savage Idealist

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^ That number is way under estimated.. unless you're living extremely meagerly and never buy the kid anything outside essentials for most of its life.. And it never has to go to the doctors.. or breaks anything.. or goes to stellar schools.. or pre-schools.. and someone sprung the bill for its delivery..

Seriously, it's much higher than that? Damn, even more of a reason for me not to have kids.

But with that said.. People find a way to make things happen all of the time. Would you feel your child would be less satisfied with you as a parent unless you made enough money to shower it in what it wants and needs? We lived a very poor life growing up, but.. I still highly enjoyed my childhood. Surely economics isn't all that holds you back?

Well to be honset I have no personal desire to have kids, it's not really in my life's agenda. Although if I were to have kids, as long as I can provide love and compassion for them, then even if I'm not making that much money I suppose I coul still enjoy the process of raising them.
 

Savage Idealist

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^ That number is way under estimated.. unless you're living extremely meagerly and never buy the kid anything outside essentials for most of its life.. And it never has to go to the doctors.. or breaks anything.. or goes to stellar schools.. or pre-schools.. and someone sprung the bill for its delivery..

Seriously, it's much higher than that? Damn, even more of a reason for me not to have kids.

But with that said.. People find a way to make things happen all of the time. Would you feel your child would be less satisfied with you as a parent unless you made enough money to shower it in what it wants and needs? We lived a very poor life growing up, but.. I still highly enjoyed my childhood. Surely economics isn't all that holds you back?

Well to be honset I have no personal desire to have kids, it's not really in my life's agenda. Although if I were to have kids, as long as I can provide love and compassion for them, then even if I'm not making that much money I suppose I coul still enjoy the process of raising them.
 

redacted

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It's an interesting question that I'd answer two different ways.

If you're talking economics, like physical resources, then...yes, if I were too poor to raise a kid in a healthy environment, I wouldn't have children. It would just seem too cruel to me.

If you're talking economics including emotional resources, then...yes again, even if I were rich enough to raise a kid in a healthy environment, I wouldn't have children if I lacked the emotional resources to be a loving father, etc. You could also view the desire to have children as a resource -- the more you have of it, the less important other factors become in your decision to have kids. I think I have a lot of this resource (the desire itself), but not so much that I would have kids without considering the long-term.
 

Munchies

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i would be childless if i didnt have the comfterable means to support it. Africa is fille with poor people just poping out babies. I don't know if it's because they can't afford any luxories so all they do is fuck, but there is a lot of poor people bring more people into the environment, making the community that much more poor.
 

Falcarius

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Falcarius would consider being childless for a whole bunch of reasons but economic reasons are not one.
 

Kraska

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Falcarius would consider being childless for a whole bunch of reasons but economic reasons are not one.

I will remain childless but not for economical reasons. I have personal reasons for that.
 

Such Irony

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Absolutely. If I knew I didn't have enough money to afford children I wouldn't have them in the first place. I wouldn't want to expose my children to less than desirable living conditions. It also wouldn't be fair to my husband and I wouldn't want to suffer either.


^ That number is way under estimated.. unless you're living extremely meagerly and never buy the kid anything outside essentials for most of its life.. And it never has to go to the doctors.. or breaks anything.. or goes to stellar schools.. or pre-schools.. and someone sprung the bill for its delivery..

But with that said.. People find a way to make things happen all of the time. Would you feel your child would be less satisfied with you as a parent unless you made enough money to shower it in what it wants and needs? We lived a very poor life growing up, but.. I still highly enjoyed my childhood. Surely economics isn't all that holds you back?

I read somewhere that its around 1 million dollars. I think that's from birth until adulthood.
 

kyuuei

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Absolutely. If I knew I didn't have enough money to afford children I wouldn't have them in the first place. I wouldn't want to expose my children to less than desirable living conditions. It also wouldn't be fair to my husband and I wouldn't want to suffer either.

Curiosity, what do you consider less than desirable?

I read somewhere that its around 1 million dollars. I think that's from birth until adulthood.

That'd be around 50k a year.. That number seems a little harsh, until you throw in the cost of education outside of the free public learning if your child goes on to an expensive facility.. in which case, it is definitely on target.
 

iwakar

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The reality is I'm in a very promising relationship and I can tell you that our shared timeline is largely impacted by the state of the economy.

IOW, I am currently childless and probably will be for the next few years because of this. It makes me sad, but I'm not going to throw a pity party. Just gonna keep truckin.

If for some reason my lot does not improve or worsens, I would not have children because it would feel irresponsible. I don't *just* want to be a parent, I want to be a good parent and being able to provide is part of that.
 

Such Irony

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Absolutely. If I knew I didn't have enough money to afford children I wouldn't have them in the first place. I wouldn't want to expose my children to less than desirable living conditions. It also wouldn't be fair to my husband and I wouldn't want to suffer either.


Curiosity, what do you consider less than desirable?

Not being able to provide a comfortable means of living. By comfortable I mean having a roof under ones head, enough food and clothing, basic utilities, and not having constant anxiety about making these ends meet.
 

Spamtar

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Well that takes eating the child if you get too hungry out of the calculation.
 
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