To wonder if people will think more carefully about becoming parents after this?

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Do you think that now people have seen that the shit can hit the fan and they might be solely responsible for the well-being and education of any children they bring into the world, in particular without practical state support in terms of schooling, people might be less inclined to have children?

I wondered this at the start when schools closed and I’ve thought about it more and more as the situation has progressed.

It has put us off having any more! Two in lockdown is hard enough.

I get more ambivalent the older I get. I'm still just about in the 'let's do it if it happens' camp but honestly this world is shit and it's fucking irresponsible bringing more poor souls into it. They didn't ask for it. Why should they be subjected to the misery that is being alive? When it's only going to get worse? I cannot think of a period in human history that was kind.

OP are you one of the posters that hops on a thread about parents struggling to cope with home schooling, isolation, not being able to go anywhere etc to say ‘what’s so hard about looking after your own children?’ ‘Why did you have children if you hate spending time with them so much’ or some such variance?

The premise of your OP does seem to be along those lines. If so I find that attitude unbearably patronising and judgemental. Lockdown is completely unprecedented.

Mostly people have kids due to a deep biological desire to pass on DNA. Thought goes out the window. It's the sole purpose of life in a biologists eyes. Pass on your DNA. Same for viruses really. But with RNA. Survival of the fittest and all that jazz

We home ed our dcs, so no.

OP if you come back in really interested in your view on the impact of women around the globe relating to covid and lack of access to reproductive healthcare

People get pregnant and give birth during wars.

Why would having to home educate your own children for a few months make people think twice about having children?

On that premise no one would ever have children. The world has never been an ideal place to bring new life into.

Do you honestly think that being able to send your child to school is the only thing that makes being a parent bearable?

All this “be responsible for your own children” stuff. It’s fucking idiotic. Child rearing has been a community activity since homo erectus. School is just a formalised version of that.

I can see some agree and others don’t. So it will probably all balance out.

Glad I haven’t got anyone too angry, I did try to word the OP not to enrage people. I certainly haven’t jumped onto threads to tell people they should enjoy their children. I have looked at my own children and wondered whether their decision to have children will be as straightforward as I felt mine was at the time.

I am worried about the fact that some scientists have said these sort of events are likely to occur more in the future. I have been a bit of a prepper since I’ve had children, for whatever reason it brought that out in me - how would I get medicine, food, education, money for my kids in a disaster situation? I get that others don’t think that way. But as I’ve said I wonder if this thought process might affect people in the future.

Ha I’m gonna be honest. If childcare, schools, clubs and all the fabulous family who look after my DD didn’t exist. I think I would have remained childless.

ShinyFootball it’s appalling. I am concerned about women’s treatment in all of this - we fulfil more caring roles and therefore are more impacted in general when something like this happens. I’m not judging women who fall pregnant, either intentionally or not. I am asking whether those who are choosing whether or not to have children will make a different choice based on what has happened.

OP you do get that people all over the world have kids and then situations go to shit, I assume? Drought, tornadoetc. War. People's lives turned upside down in the blink of an eye.

What do you think of that?

Any comment on the global issue of accessing reproductive healthcare during Corona? Some USA States using it to block access to abortion etc?

Xpost sorry

Will read yours.

What about men's choices about starting a family, having children. In the UK? You only mention women.

No. People will still have children its a basic biological urge. Also i hate all this shit hand wringers come on to say about if they knew the world was going the way it was they wouldn't havw had kids blah fucking blah.
Through the history of time humans have survived and procreated through huge pandemics and no healthcare.
In fact africa still faces huge deaths due to malaria yet no one seems to care about them reproducing only care when its the west affected.

People procreate during and after wars. We have survived and procreated during great smogs that killed. We as humans have procreated through a hole in the ozone growing and shrinking closed again. We have procreated during numerous nuclear failures including chernobyl and fukishima... We have procreated during times of huge inequality from slaves to the depression from rape in marriage legal until 1991 and civil rights.

The world is no more dangerous or bad than it was years ago we are just more aware of issues now. So i hate the bullshit simpering of "i never would have brought children into the world if i knew how bad it would get". Humans would die out quickly if that was the case.

I think fewer and fewer women are going to have children unless there is a significant change in division of labour. It’s not the schools closing during extraordinary times, though, because this slow down in the number of women prepared to have children has been happening for sometime. It’s the way institutions and society expect women to bear the brunt whatever the circumstances. In particular, but not only, the way absent fathers as a class duck out of responsibility for children and are aided by the government in doing so. It’s a massive transfer of wealth from women with children to the rest of society and fewer and fewer women are finding it attractive now they have other options.

The world is no more dangerous or bad than it was years ago we are just more aware of issues now. So i hate the bullshit simpering of "i never would have brought children into the world if i knew how bad it would get". Humans would die out quickly if that was the case.

While I do think a lot of the “I never would have...” commenting is just rhetoric, I don’t think it’s reasonable to say it’s bullshit because it was always like this but people weren’t aware. Becoming aware is a catalyst for changing your mind. You make decisions on the basis of what you think you know, not what is actually true but you weren’t aware of. So as people become more aware of issues like, for instance, global warming, or how politically fragile democracy is, they might start to change their mind about how good a future their child is likely to have and so whether or not they should have had that child.

I’ve wondered if people who were pregnant before lockdown are wondering what the hell they’ve done. What an awful world to bring kids into.

Any baby boom will surely be limited by the fact that hookups and casual dating have been limited by lockdowns.

OP I think some people who were already unsure of having one or more kids will choose not to because of this. But many won’t take it into consideration at all. Also remember those with DCs under 4 aren’t having to do lots of homeschooling so that experience doesn’t shape their decision making.

ShinyFootball I only mean to mention women as those who fall pregnant. I’ve been trying to use the word people when describing those who have children.

Did not, of course, think of a pandemic. (!)

The last pandemic was well within living memory.
I watched a programme the other day where a mother was sobbing 'No one expects their kids to have special needs' - I just thought, 'WTF!?'
Autism alone is one in ten...

In short, OP, no - I don't think that people will think more carefully. They'll be as clueless as they ever were.

Boomboom the division of labour has been an eye opener to me. I’ve also been surprised by women I know who have said it’s their career taking the hit. I’m surprised there isn’t more scope to spread the hit out and so lessen it for one party in a household, thus benefitting everyone in the long run.

Yes it's not just on the women

Also remember that when women start to become economically independent and get more rights, and access to birth control etc, many say no thanks. In those countries it's seen as a real problem due to an aging population.

We have had countries in the past try to regulate number of children with one end being China one child policy, Romania under caecesu at the other end.

Neither ended well and both caused more harm to women than men.

People have babies. That's what they do.

A civilised society says ok well whatever we think of the parents, the babies need a decent chance at life. And so makes sure they are fed, educated etc

I never understand the point of these threads TBH. It is what it is. If you want s society to have less children, getting women able to support themselves is what is needed.

Any baby boom will surely be limited by the fact that hookups and casual dating have been limited by lockdowns

The baby boom will be 9 months after restrictions are lifted, and the desperate-for-a-shag folks are let loose

Autism is not a Pandemic? Can you give more info Tania.

The last pandemic to have global impact was HIV.