If I was younger I wouldn't be having a baby

[JingleBellez]

because childcare costs are sky high, nappies and milk have gone through the roof.

Tell me I'm wrong.

What about if you don't intend spending any money on nappies, milk or childcare?

Whilst there is nothing wrong with that, I do feel it's easier to say after you've already had your children.

I may be a bit salty as I've noticed a theme at my workplace where many colleagues (if I'm honest it's exclusively older women, but that is only my experience) make throw away comments implying that younger women would be insane / stupid / short sighted / selfish to consider having children. Especially with the world as it is today. This is despite nearly all of them having already had their own families.

As someone who is starting to consider starting a family, I find I do have to bite my tongue somewhat.

I breast fed so didn’t have that to pay out for.

Who rattled your cage?

Get a grip! I meant it's ridiculously expensive to raise a young family currently

Well I am having a baby, my second actually. The costs of those are manageable. Nappies are £2-£4 per pack which isn’t much, milk is expensive but option to breastfeed for some people, childcare is really expensive but for a short space of time and we can manage it. It’s not that bad.

Some ladies can't.

Breastfeeding, second hand cloth nappies and going to work - not found it too expensive at all really.

My eldest was born in 06 - milk was 7 for a quality brand. Now £20.
Childcare 100 for 3 days FT and with milk and nappies. I breastfeed for 6 months. Had reusuable nappies and some aldi nappies for days out.

We will also get (most of) the £40 per week child benefit which will easily cover milk and nappies with extra to spare.

£20? What milk are you looking at? It’s £12ish in most supermarkets

It’s always been expensive to raise kids. I know childcare was more expensive for me than it is now because there was no free childcare hours. I could swear too that formula was not VAT exempt then too, but not 100% sure as I breastfed. I used cloth nappies at home and only bought a few disposable ones for days out so that’s a cost that can be managed. Maternity leave was a lot less time at lower income then too.

Yeah definitely easy to say when you already have a family. 🙄

Do you apply the same logic to going on holiday? 'Ooh, it's so expensive, I tell people not to book a holiday because flights, accommodation and spending money are sky high'.

There seems to be this collective sense that not even previous generations, but people just a few years older had it mythically easy. It's really weird.

Also in life, very few decisions make sense if you look at them from a purely 'financial' perspective - a mortgage (where you'll pay back multiples of the purchase price of the property if you let it run for the full term), marriage (50% of what's yours becomes theirs on day 1), holidays (save all year for 10 days?), expensive clothes (they'll still wear out), expensive meals (shit within 24 hours) etc etc. And yet we do it all anyway.

So you had your first child almost 20 years ago and you're surprised that things now cost more?

What is the point of this thread, exactly? It feels goady, but I can't work out your intended target.

Well I am having a baby, my second actually. The costs of those are manageable.

Why should you have to ‘manage’ to have children? Can’t you see what’s wrong with that statement?

and this ‘Do you apply the same logic to going on holiday? 'Ooh, it's so expensive, I tell people not to book a holiday because flights, accommodation and spending money are sky high'.

Why? Why are you accepting that it’s just an expense? Children shouldn’t be considered as an expense …. We should be able to raise our children without government handouts for the short while and be grateful for those handouts…. What we should be able to do is pay for our own children with decent wages.

Ignore them. My mum kept coming out with stuff like this. Funnily enough she completely changed her tune when I told her I was pregnant.

And as if all the things that made the OP decide to have children are outweighed for today’s women by the rising price of formula. 🙄

Yep I was another breastfed for 2+ years, used cloth nappies and stayed at home until childcare was free/ did work I could take my kids too. Creche/ child care/ clubs.

It wasn't all privilege though definitely a big, I couldn't go back to work full time as my other childcare job the kids were too old to bring mine and I didn't earn enough to cover costs.

I was also lucky that people on my street pass clothes down so some of my kids clothes and shoes have been owned by 3-4 other families first.

But all that said, kids are expensive. EC activities and presents for all the parties they go to takes up way more of the budget than I'd imagined it would.

Well childcare is astronomical, I don't know why people say it's manageable. We have some of the most expensive childcare in the world. I have one in school and one at nursery and it's 1800 a month.

If everyone shared your view then the human race would die out?

We are ttc, we have plenty of savings, earn good salaries and I am entitled to 9 months full pay on maternity leave. We have family to help with childcare. Not everyone is in a bad position. More women now have good careers before choosing to start a family meaning their financial position is more solid. Lots of employers are increasingly becoming more flexible and accommodating as well as paying enhancements for maternity pay.

Raising children is expensive but I can’t see how people have any choice but to manage?

Breastfeeding has made it so much cheaper. Pregnant with my second and literly kept everything from my first. Yeah im not rich but you make it work 😊 I love being a mam. Wouldn't change it for the world.

Literally*

Because for us it is manageable. It’s expensive but we earn enough to cover it and we factored it in to the the decision to have children. I’m not pleased about spending so much on it of course but it is manageable for us.

We got pregnant young unintentionally whilst building our careers, we got the majority of our childcare paid for via tax credits, now we are higher earners and high rate tax payer but with minuscule childcare bills (as kids are now older) Unexpectedly worked out the best way it could for us!

I live near a not cheap supermarket...

I am so lucky I paid 500pcm...