UK fertility rate drops by 18.8% in 12 years

I know they are. Economic issues everywhere we look, but there really is no future here, not even shelter. I’d go as far as to say no future in much of the west.

We have neglected the young (millennial and under) too long, and they have had enough 🤷‍♀️

Not sure it is in many places.

This is naive. There's no sunset to walk off into.

I did that and came back in my 40s. Falling birth rates are a global issue.

Because for the first time ever, it’s becoming socially acceptable not to.

I don’t think it needs reversed. Planet is a mess, we have over evolved, and current society isn’t somewhere I’d want to navigate whilst having the responsibility of influencing a young mind.

Not to mention the fact I just don’t want to risk my health and my body for the sake of another life.

I think what will happen is people will have to get used to paying for things they did not previously. Such as your comment about dentists - there is load of availability….for private dentists!

Also, any person pre 40s who is savvy is leaving the uk. Future is not bright guys.

Hear hear. Women are screwed royally

Housing, cost of childcare, and lack of community. The capitalist nuclear family model is an absolute disaster for raising human babies.

Just wait until the young properly catch on to the fact that no babies = no pension or society for themselves.

It’s almost like they’ll wonder why they are bothering to pay in at all currently. Poor greedy boomers and landlords, damn shame.

And there is alot of pressure to have kids and more than 1 in some parts of society

It’s interesting about the drive to have a kid. I wanted one and assume I had that “drive” but if I am honest it cannot have been that strong as if it was I would have had one. Just settled for any man that wanted me (even if I loathed him) just to have kids. I have female friends that did that because their desire for motherhood took over their minds but I always was more relaxed not having kids than having them in a situation I was not happy in. So evidently like you in reality I never had that drive really.

Natural consequence of the young generation being left to rot in their parents houses and house shares.

Amongst the rest of the costs.

It’s a double whammy too, we have a new wave of feminism and a crop of the weakest, most repugnant and violent men I have ever seen. No smart girl wants to reproduce, destroy her life, receive inadequate maternity care (frankly obscenely bad) just to be thrown away by a man boy now 🤷‍♀️ I made the mistake once and I don’t intend on doing that to myself again either.

I think that's what Western governments are banking on to be honest. That euthanasia will be actively promoted as the socially responsible choice.

It's hard to even argue against it. No one is 'owed' a highly medicalised existence into their late eighties only to be bedridden and demented attacking hospital staff. I certainly don't want that to be my future. I'm sorry if that sounds harsh but if you've been on an NHS ward recently that's the reality and unless social care is properly funded it's not going to change.

@IcedPurple True. The same pattern can be seen across pretty much all developed countries, regardless of significant variation in the cultures of those countries as well as in economic policy and the support provided to parents etc. Even in less developed parts of the world it's declining, obviously from a higher starting point. Fundamentally, when given the choice, people simply do not want to have many (sometimes any) children.

I have environmental concerns, so I'm glad the birth rate is dropping, but they are not the reason I am childfree. As you say, it's because I've never wanted children, not so much as a twitch of an ovary.

I do think some people probably consider environmental concerns if they're more on the fence about children, or not sure how many to have. It's a valid factor—I'd be scared and sad for my children, if I had them, looking at the ecological collapse happening in real time now.

@GretchenWienersHair It’s not nice, is it. That’s why we need to focus on technology now to replace younger humans. It’s hard enough finding a dentist nowadays, for example, I can’t imagine what it’ll be like when a larger percentage of the population is elderly! We need dental robots. 😂

I’m not convinced it’s the cost of living stopping people from having kids. I think it can stop you from having additional kids certainly. The people I know who don’t want them are actually quite financially comfortable (probably because they don’t have kids but are definitely in a position to have some).

I also think people who cite environmental concerns etc aren’t being completely honest. I think they genuinely don’t want any. On mumsnet you often see women talking about this drive to have children (not me, never had it, but I do have a kid).

Eesh. I mean I don’t know how I’ll feel about in 50 years time, but right now the thought of that being the solution to a healthcare problem terrifies me.

@OptimismvsRealism 🤣 It’s definitely not for everyone!

Fingers crossed, I get on with my two (19 &16) so far.

I’d have liked a third, but the second broke me physically. And the uk isn’t designed for families of five and it’d cost too much.

Most people I know seem to resent their parents and don't see much of them. Maybe I'd be an exception and hotly in demand by my adult offspring but given my lack of appetite for potato prints and potty training I doubt they'd feel they owed me much.

@GretchenWienersHair I genuinely think that euthanasia may seem like a decent option for some of us as we age. I certainly have no desire to be living in a society dominated by older people and struggling to get the services I need.

@OptimismvsRealism So why did you suggest that parents get ignored and used by their adult children?

We don’t do ourselves, I think few people do!

I really don't know what the solution to this is but the problem always seems to be to put the blame on women. Women are having too fewer babies, leaving them too late or don't want to have them. No one seems to mention there's plenty men who don't want children or don't want to have them earlier either.

I'm uncomfortable with the idea that people should be guilt tripped or encouraged into having children or bigger families when they don't want this or have other reasons they may not want children or more than one.

Being a parent is so hard, our society isn't designed to support parents and especially mothers. You only need to read posts on here telling mums on maternity leave that they should do all the house work, deal with all the night wakings, not leave your baby with anyone no matter how exhausted or overwhelmed you are because it's more important that your husband/partner needs all his rest for working plus downtime when he gets home. Housing is so expensive as is child care it's no wonder no one wants do it more than once or even do it at all. We're then expected to intensely parent our children well into adulthood, not let them out our sight, not let them outside to play, take them to a million activities a week, drive them everywhere while never meeting our own needs.

I love my child but I can absolutely understand the reason for the fertility decline and people deciding children isn't for them.