‘It’s not a nice world to bring children into’ - Births fall to the lowest level in 50 years - BBC article

[OneBusyFinch]

Just reading this article and don’t think I’ve seen a thread on it.

More people are having fewer children - and it’s not just the UK, the data shows it’s a worldwide trend. Interesting reading the different perspectives.

I don’t think the world is any worse than it was during any decade in the last 100 years.

My dc and step dc want kids, they are still in mid 20’s now but plans are to have them in 5-10 years, all university educated. They aren’t hurrying but definitely are thinking one or two. The trend to fewer children is even more advanced in other countries, Italy I know has a really low birth rate and my Spanish friends say only those on benefits have more than one child (simplification, but mirrors what I see in my town as far as larger families are concerned though 2 is normal in the U.K.)

Housing costs are exorbitant and have risen twice as fast as wages over the past few decades. People aren't going to have children knowing they can't afford the extra bedroom(s) needed.

The job market is on a knife edge with AI and the state of the UK economy.

Russia is flexing it's muscles. A lunatic is running the USA.

National debt is 3 TRILLION and we're spending more on interest than we are on education, which is in a shockingly bad state.

The NHS is crumbling.

The Western World, and especially the UK is in a pretty bad way.

I think that’s a very narrow view.
30/40/50 years ago people were living through a war where I am. Housing was much harder to access depending on the area, no go zones, little progress, the streets and cities were wrecks. Women had little rights in or out of a marriage, no control of their reproduction. Families were much poorer, people had 7/8/9/10 children in 2 bedroom houses.

Thinking this is the worse time in history is really a luxury.

they will be the same parents that want the village to only mean free childcare

It’s sad but I would understand if my children didn’t want children, or decided not to have them. Tragic really.

The usual assumptions on this thread that the child free are well off Im child free by choice and in social housing (so some of you would see me as the "wrong type of person" to have kids.
Back to my first point. When you are in my position and dont want/choose not to have kids it can be to your own detriment. Back in the 90s when i was in my 20s the rule was you had to have children to qualify for a house with a garden or even a larger 2/3 bedroom flat. This was the ONLY way of getting it if you were on a lower income. Im in a one bedroom flat where ive been since 1994 but before that it was a tiny bedsit. But as posters have said upthread if you dont want children you just wont have them no matter the bribe.

Yes, of course factors like the job market, economic climate, climate change are key. It’s good to know that women are educated and able to apply critical thinking to what what society has always previously expected of women and feel ok and confident about choosing what is right for them as individuals

Would you rather go back to World War 1 with a high risk of dying in battle or of Spanish flu, or would you rather have neither apply to you and order your takeaway with Deliveroo? I'm stuck with where I am, but I'm alive and I've got choices.

Still 1 in 2 people will get cancer

I think this needs to be talked about more. There ass a much greater societal taboo against men leaving their wife/child say, 30+ years ago than there is now.