To think this country's future looks bleak due to the attitude towards having children

[KookyExpert]

I have observed a very hostile attitude towards people with children especially on MN. Whenever anyone posts anything about struggling financially due to childcare etc, there are lots of people commenting on how having a family and children are lifestyle choice.
As the saying goes it takes a village to raise a child, there are no villages these days and most families have both parents working which makes the role of parenting even harder in the current times.
Not just that, there are many family friendly organisations but in reality if someone has a young child and when parents have to take time off work to look after sick children, there are so many people moaning about it.
UK reported its lowest birth rate in the last 2 decades and it's relying on migrants to fill the jobs. With the hostile attitude and crippling childcare costs, I think this country's future looks bleak and the shortage for many occupations will only get bigger with increased reliance on migrants to fill those jobs if people keep choosing to have no children.
I expect people to have bit more sympathy for parents with children and less hostility to create a better future for everyone.

You're right. The government has basically set up a dynamic where they have to pick one of the below:
A collapsed health and social care system
Much higher taxes
High immigration

They have picked high immigration. Higher taxes would for example fund more support for families as well as other public services but they haven't gone for that option.

Why have children if you cannot afford them, fact is you expect other to pay for your bad choices furthermore mentioning the uk birth rate means nothing, how many David ats docs do you have to watch to understand THE WORLD IS OVERPOPULATED yet you choose to contribute to it for WHAT REASON?

COMMON SENSE

Well, short phase for the parent concerned, but every year hundreds of thousands of babies are born across the UK, so the number of babies and small children doesn't vary that much.

Nobody minds kids in a café. What they do mind is them running around, screaming, or playing computer games or watching videos without headphones on (or all of the above) without their parents doing anything to stop them.

If you have kids you do your best to make sure that they don't have an adverse impact on the people around you.

Wtf

"the implication is that parents have no right to expect consideration, adjustments or support from society as a whole and that non-parents have no obligation to make financial contributions, through taxes, to support parents directly or indirectly."

Well, no, because I didn't make the choice to bring more people into this world? Why on earth should I have to pay for that? The world population is bursting at the seams as it is, why should I have to contribute anything whatosever to yet more kids being brought into the world? The mind completely boggles. Your choice, your problem. I'm choosing not to have kids, so I can have a nicer life. Say of that what you will, I imagine it will be quite negative and jealous.

’jealous’ hilarious, what is there to be jealous of, what an earth gives you the impression that they are a ‘problem’. I adore my children and the kind of people they are becoming, I certainly made the better choice for me.

And what are you doing for society? For single and vulnerable people.

Shitty thing to say to involuntarily childless people.

The future of this country looks bleak but not for that reason. May be for starters the country should not be relying on immigrants to do the jobs they do not want to do. Worse of all those people who do not want to do those jobs. Are likely the same ones who get on benefits to avoid doing those jobs. The culture of what I entitled to without being net tax contributions is widely accepted. Some high earners decide to have one child as taxes are so high along the COL that affording more than one is impossible. However, you see all the time man with three and four kids who left them and do not support them financially so the burden is on the taxpayers because of the now single mother. This mess is out of control. Before you all jump to tell me to stop reading the Daily fail. There are plenty of posts from single mothers and people who can’t afford to have kids on this site.

@Bululu which jobs do you mean?

Just in case it was fruit picking.

a. Fruit picking veg picking etc a lot of which is LIVE IN work. If you rent social housing you have to actually fucking well live there. You are not allowed to live away from home for the length of time these employers want you to. If you want that you will need to give SH tenants more rights! But that would also mean giving them more rights to leave their home for other reasons Up for that are we social housing haters???!!!

b. Gas safety checks fire door checks electric checks Surveys My tenancy agreement says i have to be home for these and no i cant get a friend or neighbour to do it for me.

c. the hatred there is for SH tenants ensures that some busybody would probably report the flat as abandoned if a tenant were to risk their tenancy by taking this job. See recently deleted thread, https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/thirty_days_only/5042443-aibu-to-consider-reporting-a-council-flat-not-used?page=3

d. i have mentioned SH tenants because they will be the most likely group expected to take these jobs yet their hands are tied and they cant And even if they wont perhaps they want a life after the working day (just like home owners have. You know the ones who arent expected to do these jobs, instead of sharing a berth with a stranger

In the UK we pay for all sorts of things that aren’t our own choice. Personally, I prefer that.

Just because someone chooses to have children doesn’t mean they don’t deserve normal support and human decency. Equally, if someone chooses not to, they need just as much support and decency. Or if they want to, but can’t. Or if they adopt. Or if they’re fostering children. These situations are so much more complex than the above post makes out.

Yep A recent thread of mine proves this.

Yes I’m totally confused by a thread like this at a time when the world is crippled by over-population. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Yes I’m totally confused by a thread like this at a time when the world is crippled by over-population

People are racist. The birthrate among white women is reducing in Europe. So they panic and think we need to start breeding (more) so we don't get outpopulated by non-white people.

I'm too old, but it wouldn't be happening with me anyway. None of this tradwife nonsense.

It is a lifestyle choice and if you can't afford them don't have them. If I want an expensive sports car but I can't afford it, you are going to say don't buy it. If you can't afford kids don't have them, it's a choice not a right.

I always hate how people with kids talk like they are saving the world. You're not. You're contributing to overpopulation in a world with dwindling resources, you are adding to the problem so please stop pretending like you're making the selfless choice, you're not, at all.

Children aren't a lifestyle choice. They are the foundation of our species future existence. Whether that's considered a good or bad thing isn't really relevant. The point is we are programmed to reproduce. That is the whole point of existence/life at its fundamental level. While perhaps individuals may not do so, they are still part of a society that needs the next generation for their species onward survival.

We should be supporting children and families much better than we do. Not necessarily financially but in how we treat them, how we teach them values and educate them. Supporting youngsters in their childhood, showing them they matter and their parents matter means they will want to support other members of society as they become adults. They will want to play their part because they are valued rather than feel they are on their own so need to act more selfishly to provide for themselves and their own.