Thoughts on some of the negative comments on here and in real life

[Dontcryformeallegra]

I must admit, I haven't really had many negative comments about having 4 children in real life but I often read stuff on Mumsnet!
What do you think about the following and do you have any to ad?

Where I live, there is a housing shortage with more and more of the greenfields being built on despite everyone protesting, the roads are jammed up, schools are oversubscribed and you struggle to get a timely GP or dentist appointment. Having large families just compounds these issues exponentially

The extrapolation has gone wrong here. With a birth rate of under 2 per woman it's not large families causing housing shortage or pressure on services.

@chopc

You can have as many kids as you like as long as you look after them without the help of the state

That selfish attitude is why so families are so large. No one should be having lots of children.

Help of the state? Like childbirth you mean which costs the NHS around £10,000 if there are no complications. Cost of educating children in state schools, cost of free dental treatment. I think that all comes to a pretty tidy sum even for 1 child.

Mydogisthebest what is your solution to people having children in this country then, bearing in mind that in this country the fertility rate is well below replacement levels? Do you want other countries to provide trained young people for the UK and be the ones to pay for all the costs involved with raising children l? Why not look at your own environmental impact rather then focus on women’s reproductive choices in this country.

@stairway

Mydogisthebest what is your solution to people having children in this country then, bearing in mind that in this country the fertility rate is well below replacement levels? Do you want other countries to provide trained young people for the UK and be the ones to pay for all the costs involved with raising children l? Why not look at your own environmental impact rather then focus on women’s reproductive choices in this country.

I know we have an ageing population BUT, as I and a couple of other posters have already said, we cannot keep increasing the population in order to care for the elderly. That is just plainly ridiculous. The UK is already overcrowded - we can't keep adding to it.

We need less people so, no, I don't want other countries to provide young people.

Why do I need to look at my own environmental impact? Did you even read my previous post? Me and DH have NO children due to our concerns about over population and climate change. We have been vegetarian for over 30 years, recycle, buy second hand, rarely fly etc etc.

Having children is one of the worst things with regard to environmental impact but so many people are too selfish and/or stupid to accept that.

Comments like "you can have as many children as you like as long as you look after them without any help from the state" are pathetic and untrue. No one should be having lots of children.

Plus, as I said, how many women have a child without any money/help from the state? They conveniently don't think about how much a birth costs the NHS, how much 1 child's education costs the state

Do whatever you want but people are always going to have opinions on your actions no matter what. I don't understand why anyone has more than 4 children in this day and age. There's just no need for it.