It's different, but not easier.
Typically both parents now need to work, often both having to work full time. A few decades ago, many mothers were SAHM and many were part time. House price inflation and other inflationary pressures have caused this. Of course, being a parent is going to be harder if you're out at work for several hours per day and need things that SAHM don't such as wraparound care, driving kids to/from school, paying for childcare costs, etc.
The drain of decent jobs into London mean more than ever people need to move away from their home towns just to get decent jobs, so they lose their family backup for support/childcare, etc. Fewer and fewer people now have "Aunt Mabel" living round the corner to call on in case help/support is needed.
The requirement to work has led people to decide not to have children or to have fewer children. Of course, those living on benefits don't have this problem as they're not going out to work, not having to take/bring kids to/from school by car, getting subsidised housing etc. That's why workers are having fewer kids but benefit claimants havn't seen the same drop in birth numbers.
Gone are the days when there were local schools. Lots of smaller schools have closed down and been merged into bigger schools, typically no longer in walking distance of lots of peoples' homes, meaning car transport is required to/from, at virtually the same time as most work places start/finishing times so causing stress and extra congestion (also causing stress).
Cost of childcare is ruinously expensive. Now it's mostly private firms, they charge more for the "profit" element, whereas a few decades ago, childcare was often from the local council so was effectively priced "at cost", therefore much cheaper.
As for when kids are older, jobs were far easier to find for school kids and school leavers. There were "corner" shops everywhere, milkmen, pop vans, cafes, boarding houses, etc., all of whom would often have "Saturday" girl/boy jobs for the busiest day of the week, or early morning/evening delivery rounds, or boarding house cleaning/room change jobs during the holidays etc. Pubs/restaurants had "pot washers" and other low skilled jobs for youngsters to earn a bit of pocket money and set them up for "proper" jobs in the future. All that's gone now that everything is "big business". Supermarkets, chain restaurants, Amazon warehouses, Travelodge, etc don't take on "Saturday girls" nor school kids during school holidays. Of course, the H&S regulations make that worse as we now have age restrictions for particular kinds of work and requirements for council permission on a "person" basis before you can employ a school kid. That has led to some of the social exclusion, mental health, inability to function in a workplace, problems as having a "bit job" was a rite of passage for most youngsters a few decades ago, but now they're sat in their bedrooms isolated from human contact. In turn that causes stress/anxiety for parents and means lots don't "launch" and stay at home longer. That background leads to people having another reason not to have kids.
And that's only my first few thoughts. I could go on.! (Please don't you say!).