To this this is NOT the worst time ever to bring a child into the world

[Celebrityskint]

Quite often I see posts going on about today’s world being a terrible world to bring children into... but honestly... in the UK... we’re probably having a very good life compared to most people in most of history.... it’s not a terrible time to bring children into the world

The last paragraph of this sums it up for me, and is why I'm not having children.

No, a child I have now probably won't die in its infancy due to preventable diseases or have to go to a workhouse at 5 years old or things that children in the past have faced. They will, however, unavoidably face increasing climate-related issues (and I don't just mean "it'll be a bit hot in summer") and the geopolitical instability that comes with it. For me, that doesn't cancel out that they won't be worse off than a Victorian child at birth.

I wouldn't bring a child into this world now, I view it as selfish. The planets dying at a extreme rate, we are most likely going to have world war 3 in the next year if russia nuke Ukraine. Cost of living crisis. Lack of food crisis.
It's all pretty grim.

There was a huge threat of nuclear war in previous times though! So were all those people who had children back then selfish as well? That means I shouldn't have been born. Yes there's a threat now again. But until its over I've way or the other we'll never know how it will affect life. Maybe we'll all die and it will be horrible for everyone. But if not I'm sure in 40 years if things have improved the majority of children born now will be happy! No one can know the future. You can only make the best of what you're given.

Why are there so many people on Mumsnet who are against having kids?🤣

I mean to say … surely there’s other websites you can use if you’re against parents so much other than one literally called MUMsnet

You have a worse life than your great grandmother did?

I don’t see how that’s possible unless she was incredibly wealthy.

I do suspect that people of earlier generations knew how to prevent making babies despite the lack of contraception!

The same criticism could be leveled at you though, assuming that everything is awful because that’s what you are seeing or experiencing.

As I said I don’t know when the best time was but at those times things were still pretty good relative to other decades. Not saying nothing bad at all happened anywhere in the world. I was born in 77 and I am now old enough to feel that if this world becomes uninhabitable in the next 25-35 years I will still have lived a fairly long life.

So because we have the threat of nuclear war we shouldn't bring children into the world?

OK, answer me this then, people who live in Syrias should they have stopped having kids years ago? What about Iraq? Afghanistan?

Of course not. This is such a nasty thread.

But if things improve again in 50 years the people will born now will feel the same as you. You have no way of knowing what the world will be like in 50 years. No one can know if the world will end in 25-30 years. Right now things may look bleak, but something could be invented next year that solves everything. We cannot know.

I think people need to think more about having kids in today's climate. You're not just having children, because they are only children for a few years, then they're adults for 60-70 years or more. Think about what kind of life they will have as adults, instead of basing your decision based on you enjoying a few years of family life with young children.

We aren't planning on closing down the human race, so people keep having children and it's no different whether you are a mother of the next generation or someone else. You could be a mother to the scientist who will be part of the chain of discovery that saves the entire human race. I think it is reasonable for you to try to raise kind and thoughtful humans who will try to make the world better, and to be aware of minimising your environmental impact while you do so.

If you are looking at about the last 30 years then it's not a great time to be having kids I guess.

However, if you are looking back more than that to the entire history of humanity, then jts definitely not any worse than any other time!

Mine don't want children and I'm quite happy, I have no desire to be a GM, the amount of GP's I see with babies/toddlers is astounding. It's as if they're starting again but I do understand that childcare is expensive and their children need to work

Yea, anything can happen but much of the damage is irreversible. Hopefully someone will come up with something, but based on current prognosis it’s definitely looking bleak. I am not speaking as some oracle with a crystal ball. There are no guarantees of anything in life.

Well some of us are currently very happily pregnant even in times where personal circumstances are hard and im damned if im going to listen to an ounce of criticism from people who already have kids saying im selfish and my poor child is going to melt with radiation and whatever else.

There isn’t anything feasible in the next 60-70 years that would make me think “non-existence is better than existence, time for humanity to stop now.”

This probably isn’t because I disagree with you on what scenarios are likely in 60-70 years. It’s because I disagree with you on the inherent value system you’re using to decide whether life is worth living.

There are people up the thread citing poor dentist availability and bad mortgage rates as reasons why it is immoral to bring children into the world. It doesn’t matter if I think dentists and mortgages will get better or worse, because I’m not making my decisions about whether life is worth living or not contingent on mortgages and dentists.

If people truly believed this, it makes for a deeply nihilistic worldview. But I don’t think people do, really - in general they haven’t thought it through much, wouldn’t dream of extending it to its logical conclusions (like, how ethical is it for people in countries with endemic malaria to have children right now? Why should we put any resources into suicide prevention in young people?), and generally either didn’t want kids or already have them (“but the world was BETTER in 2008!”)

Why would anyone not have children if they wanted them, I don't believe some people have ever read a history book. There have always been bad times, war, disease and poverty. We are a species, that's what we do.

Who is going to combat climate change, tackle poverty, invent fantastic new things that make the world better for everything on it, if we stop having children. It's so short sighted it's shocking. I think not having children is selfish.

If you wait for the perfect time you'll never do it.

I find these threads hilarious and treat being white and straight as the default. Many black people and gay people will rather have been born in the 90s and onwards. My children have a better life so far than I had- less poverty, less racism and a better education. This winter will be hard but I remember my mum rationing our food as a child. For me it won’t come to that, though I imagine it might for others in this country.

Life doesn’t seem any worse to me- only better (except for Brexit). Climate change was a problem in the 2000s too so I’m not sure why many on here are judging having babies now when they only had their babies a decade ago.

Certainly, yes. Our child is having a lovely upbringing and a lovely time. School is lovely, we are free to do enjoyable things whenever we like. We have enough money (not wealthy) and are positive, happy people. This was the only time I could bring a child into the world so no choice. Having a family in a free country is the pinnacle of bliss.

Depends how far back you want to go to compare.

A generation?
Two?
Back when children went down mines and up chimneys?
The black death?
Cavemen?

Depends really on what you believe happens to us after death.