Should childcare be paid for and other benefits given just for having a child/children?

[Sunshine236]

Does everyone think childcare should be paid for?

It's controversial but why do some people feel entitled to be monetarily supplemented because they’ve had a child?

It’s surely a lifestyle choice and people should ensure they can afford to have children?

For sure there should absolutely be a safety net for those who have had children and circumstances change seeing them need urgent support, but I’ve read people earning £100k are receiving some kind of support each month and now we're looking to provide further free childcare.

There are so many other issues such as social care, NHS funding etc that need funding which money could go towards, rather than supplementing people who are already receiving a decent salary just because they’ve had a child/children?

So, your parents never claimed family allowance then?!

That's how it is in Finland, you can get child home care allowance if you choose to look after your child under 3 at home (or pay a grandparent or other relative to look after your child), though its not a lot (few hundred euros a month)

Essentially yes people should absolutely think about finances before starting a family.

However we also need to ensure that parents are better of financially by working and contributing to the economy rather than by reducing /stopping work which it seems to be the case for numerous reasons to stop work once you have children even if they want to work

And absolutely we need to overhaul education so that people can work a full day and their child is looked after with wrap around care and extra curricular activities cause let's face it how many jobs are 0930 - 1430??

Speaking from a generation where my female friends are bankers, Dr's, nurses, architects, teachers all educated and competent and people that you want to work and be part of society

What I'd really like to see is unavailability/ unaffordability of childcare not able to be a reason not to work, and therefore the choice to stay at home is a choice decided by finances within the family unit which is not subsided by the state.

But what about for those jobs that don’t pay well enough? We still need social workers, teachers, nurses etc and what about if you’re on jobs that pay even less? Does that mean you don’t deserve children?

With climate change it's hardly a big problem.

We can't just keep having kids as one big MLM.

We need more creativity to deal with the "problem" of becoming too old to be economically active than have loads of kids to destroy the planet but pay for the old. Tech might help with care, for example, although not sure a robot can wipe bottoms.

However, childcare should be tax deductible - it should be a public policy decision to encourage parents to work - especially women. Generally speaking, it is harder for a woman of means to be abused than some without. That doesn't mean having money and a decent job will save you from an abusive oaf (see the sad case of Emma Pattison) but it does give you options.

Simple OP, the country needs babies to become the revenue earners of the future. And if we want babies, we need to enable people to have those babies and still survive.
That means both parents normally need to work, and so childcare has to be subsidised.
The alternative is people have fewer babies, or don't return to work after maternity leave, losing lots of skills and income tax for the economy.

So there must be affordable childcare. As it is, our childcare is the most expensive in Europe. the U.K. is not generous to parents.

I only have one child, I couldn't afford two and I'm reasonably well paid..

With climate change accelerating on a dying planet, producing more humans is hardly a priority. We should not be enabling it. There have to be other solutions to future economic needs than killing off other worthy species via human overpopulation even as resources dwindle and the need for human labour is continually eradicated by technology.

We should reward those who refrain from contributing to the problem, not those who perpetuate it. And going forward we need to hold parents accountable for bad outcomes. If they produce criminals, addicts, abusers, losers, scroungers, their retirement pensions should be docked, or some other mechanism put in place to motivate parents to work harder to produce upstanding citizens, if they must reproduce in the first place.

Is this a joke post?
Such is the rampant batshittery of the world we live in, it's hard to tell these days.

Does that include your parents?

There were half the number of humans on this planet when people my age were born 60 years ago. My parents limited themselves to replacement rate. I've refrained, so no finger pointing toward me.

Too bad the zero population growth advocates in the 1970s were scoffed at.
Those with lots of small children, what kind of planet do you envision for them 30 years from now?

I don't get the point of this guilt tripping? Should they send them back?

Yes you are absolutely correct. Everyone should follow your example and stop reproducing. It's the only way. Those with small children should send them back to where they got them from and the Parents should be absolutely ashamed for bringing them in to this world!

@Albiboba
Healthcare isn't free though. We pay for it through taxation.

I chose to avoid having any children and I’m so pleased I don’t have any brats. At my work only 3 of 11 women have any.

Those with children equally can resent those without as we have had to stump up the costs for bringing up the next generation of taxpayers who will pay the pensions of the childless.

I could resent those with only one child as I've got three so I've done more than my fair share (I don't resent either by the way nor think in these terms).

In reality not many people think this way. But it is ridiculous when childless people talk about subsidising childcare etc when without that there would be much fewer supermarkets open, nurses to look after the sick, care workers to look after the elderly, teachers in schools (childless might not care about that one) as jobs which women tend to do wouldn't happen wouldn't be done during those years as it would be pointless going back to work.

In reality the UK has amongst the most expensive childcare in Europe, most other countries subsidise it much more than we do as it benefit their economy. But people still moan about the subsidies that exist.

I think childcare needs to be affordable

It needs to be more than affordable. It must be abundant, accessible and high quality.
Serious investment in this sector would pay off richly in many others. If we could get this right, the country would be transformed.
Alas, government after government merely tinker around and create more problems.

I'd say it's for the best you didn't reproduce!

Going by your post you might be doing any potential children a favour by not having any.

When childfree people talk like this, it gives the rest of us a really bad name. Children are not "brats".

What utter self-serving hogwash.

Most childfree will have been paying taxes to support public programs (most of which don't benefit the childfree!) for 50 years by the time they retire. While simultaneously placing far less of a burden on the NHS, education systems and other infrastructure. We've done more than our share, demonstrably.

Meanwhile take a good look around; a significant portion of kids raised over the past few decades, and currently being raised, are not contributing or are long-term burdens on society due to being criminals, abusers, addicts, teen or deadbeat parents, intellectually unfit for employment or just willfully losers and slackers.

Yet we have to pay and pay and pay to deal with them, with no penalty or accountability to the parents. Thanks a lot!

Maybe we should dock the pensions of these parents to recoup what we've wasted on their kids, eh?

What a refreshingly insane take

Anyone seen the film Children of Men? Gives a pretty good insight into the final years of life on earth should we suddenly start being unable to reproduce.

But the simple fact is, love, that someone else's child will be wiping your arse and spoon feeding you in your dotage (and be your taxi driver, nurse, doctor, shop worker, road sweeper etc).

And actually pay your pension (you might not like it but pensions come from today's workers, your state pension isn't like paying in to a savings account for the future).

If no one has kids then there won't be anyone to do the services you need or pay your pension.

It's quite simple. You might not like it but you need people to have kids and paying for the services they need is the very least you can do if you don't have them yourself.

Plus the vast majority of children don't end up being degenerates so that argument is pretty silly too.

By the end of the labour government there were only about 100000 troubled families left in Britain. By not supporting families we are creating conditions for criminality and misery. Rich people keep more if their money and use it for climate damaging SUVs and flying on holidays.