Could anything have incentivised you to have more children?

[Echobelly]

Following excerpts from this demented article about how the birth rate might be upped in the UK ('get a telegram from the Queen when you have a third child!'): twitter.com/rhiannonlucyc/status/1543475834769522688

along with the SCOTUS ruling the other week, it got me thinking about how all ideas about how to get birth rates higher seem to involve 'Demanding women give their whole lives to childbearing and giving them a pat on the back for being good breeders' and how it never seems to involve anything that would actually make it easier for women to have children and thrive as full human beings.

I have to say, if there were free or heavily subidised childcare available I would probably have had a third, but I couldn't face that long under the burden on childcare costs (although there is the 'needing a larger car and house' issue as well). Could any subsidy or offer from government have encouraged you to have more children than you are planning/have?

I'm childfree free by choice and no government incentive to encourage north rates would have changed my mind

Birth, autocorrect fail

Hmm. Very good low-cost childcare from age 1, MUCH better maternity and postnatal care from the NHS. Mainly the latter. Pigs might fly.

Childcare subsidy, better maternity package, make it financially viable to stay at home and look after my child for a couple of years instead of going back to work. I don’t even WANT to put him in nursery and it’s extortionate but I’ve no choice, we both need to work full time. As it is I’ve squished forty hours a week into 3.5 days to cut down on nursery costs and hand more time with DS, and I feel like I’m spreading myself pretty bloody thinly at the moment.
So we will stick to one, no question.

Yeah, an extra 100k a year, a big enough house that isn't crazy expensive to heat, lower bills in general and amazing child care options.

The writer of the article appears to be a solo mad man. With the current climate crisis people are being encouraged to have fewer children.

Yeah, I mean basically we need free/cheap childcare; affordable food, energy and housing; a big wodge of cash each time we have a baby; decent mat pay and leave, and no discrimination at work after we have kids.

But as we're women we're just expected to be so overjoyed and privileged to fulfil our natural duty that of course we don't need anything else. Or maybe we just need to be forced to give birth whether we want to or not.

My reasons are purely economical. To have 3 plus kids I would need:

• at least 6 months paid mat leave
• free (or heavily subsidised full time childcare)
• pension contributions covered whilst on mat leave
• more family tickets available for days out / holidays
• entitlement to child benefit (I earn just over the threshold so get nothing, even though my student loan repayments mean my take home isn’t huge)

that utopia is never going to happen so in reality, nothing could make me have 3.

I think on a realistic level, the easiest ‘fix’ is encouraging people to have 1 or 2.
The reinstatement of child benefit and based on household income up to £200k (we earn nowhere near this, but I think higher earners need a bit of a sweetener) and free childcare to kick in at 12 months (or subsidised, so it’s something like £300 a month).

No

I grew up as one of three children and didn’t like the dynamics of three children. I stopped at two children myself, nothing would have persuaded me to have a third.

Better childcare subsidies and higher child benefit with the earnings cap raised.

I’d have loved another, but couldn’t afford a bigger house/ car. But then, I have 4 anyway so possibly not the target demographic!

Nothing realistic.

We have 3. I would have loved a fourth - but 4 kids and work and life - we decided it was too much. To much money, too little spare time.

If money was literally no object - lottery win territory - we'd have had another. Unlimited money brings a fuck load of extra time too as no work.

Nothing short of that would have made us have another.

No nothing could convince me to have more children. No money on this earth or free childcare.

The world is seriously over populated, resources are depleting at a extremely fast rate. Global warming. War. Etc. I often feel guilty bringing my kids into a world like this.

Nothing at all. One and done because I hated the drudgery.

Someone else would give birth for me and do the night shifts! Also pay for a cleaner and free childcare.
I do have 3 children though so doing my part 🤣

Longer fully paid maternity leave, properly subsidised childcare for all and good quality options for wraparound care for DC with SEN.

I mean, at the moment you can't claim benefits for more than 2 kids if your on Uc which lots of people on a low income are even in full time work. So getting rid of that stupid rule would be a start. There's also a cap on childcare that is nowhere near what childcare costs. So something with childcare costs would be great.

Then there's the housing crisis.

And I'm not sure I would have another baby after the disastrous hospital births I've had and the shit show that is family court and the horror that is fleeing domestic violence.

There is a major demographic shift happening which is frightening to me personally as what will things look like when I'm old. But I did think it was too late to fix it, we need more immigrants (obvs not popular!).

I think it's a good thing that women don't have to have dc if they don't want. My sister doesn't & has a perfectly fulfilling, happy life. For the ones who do want them, the cost of housing & life is prohibitive. So you need money incentives & better working practice. Look at Ireland's child benefit. More subsidies childcare. DHs company offers 3 months paid paternity leave which I think is good.

I was youngest of 3 and liked the dynamic, but as I said childcare costs (and a world built around a '2 adult, 2 kid' families) put me off. I think also I wouldn't want more than two these days what with the environment; right now I am totally indifferent as to whether I'll ever be a grandmother, I certainly won't be nudging my kids to have their own.

With the current climate crisis people are being encouraged to have fewer children.

People are having fewer dc though

Fully paid maternity leave.

I've got two and it breaks my heart that it's unrealistic to have a third because I actually would love six.
I'd want 50% childcare subsidies on full nursery hours from age 1, or a two-year maternity package like Sweden (I believe, might be wrong), and also proper support for hyperemesis gravidarum in the form of prophylactic medication (so I don't have to keep going back and forth to doctors a million times when sick), and living somewhere where I could get a cleaner and a nanny for the older children throughout that pregnancy so I could just lie in bed and vomit. Oh and a legal guarantee that I was going to be able to keep my job at the end of the HG, even if I was only on a contract, and that those days wouldn't count towards sickness absence.
Seems a bit unlikely lmao.
Love the babies, hate the HG.

The world is seriously over populated, resources are depleting at a extremely fast rate. Global warming. War. Etc. I often feel guilty bringing my kids into a world like this.

In the west the population growth is generally caused by immigration & people living longer. The economic impact of ageing populations is going to have huge ramifications.

Like others low cost child care, fully paid mat leave and better NHS maternity care.

also more options for cars that can take three car seats