Why Millennials and Gen Z Are NOT Having Children

[MrShowoff]

Why would we want kids? We can barely afford ourselves.

[thefatfedorahatclan]

And the abomination that is the housing market

[girlmeetsglam]

Didn't they shame poor people asking for assistance with child care “saying don't have kids you can't afford?”

[levitheguy]

I told my dad this is why he likely won’t get any grandkids. My heart broke when he said “I know.”

[nidohime]

"If you want children first you need a house"
Are you gonna give us a house?
"No!"
The we don't have children.
"How dare you of being so selfish to not have children!?"

[angrydragon]

My original comment got shadow banned so I'll make this short - the people that run the country will not fix the problem because the problem with inflation makes them wealthier at your expense.

[adavidson]

I have 2 children now. And i can say im more concerned for their future than even my own. And its very sad. Cause i want the best for them.

[greaterthanme]

I wanted kids but couldn't have them, I grieved for many years, but now I can see that it would have been extremely difficult to have them, we aren't in the bracket of affording children- working class making just enough money to not qualify for government assistance and too little to afford health insurance or even a working vehicle.

[electrablazer]

Life is expensive and depressing who wants to bring another soul into this nightmare

[wavesbnice]

Politicians ain't doing nothing. They just watching it all burn down.

[edgeofsevnteen]

I’m a 37yo female. Got married in 2016 to a man I’ve been with since 2004, don’t have kids. Can’t afford them. Don’t own a house, can’t afford that either. Can’t even afford rent. Can barely afford to eat. We’re just working to get our heads above water but never reach the surface. Take 1 step forward, 2 steps back. We can’t even afford to save cause everything goes to survival. Right now, me and my husband live with my mother, otherwise we’d be on the streets. All I truly dream of is owning a home I can share with my husband, but it’s now set up in a way that they keep us all in a perpetual state of debt so were never caught up and can never obtain. We constantly owe money. It’s not right.

[Zilron]

They want us and our partners to work 70 hours per week each and have at least 3 children.

[Mewhenifinalltgetallthebugs]

Why would you risk getting pregnant if you know as a woman youre not going to recieve life saving care in most states if you have some kind of complication?

[qbwgroe]

If I can’t take care of myself and live I can’t do that for a child

[forjusticeandtruth]

To be honest i feel like self awareness also plays into this, no offense but the oldies (older generations) mindlessly chose to have kids and some even unreasonable amounts (4, 5 etc) without even thinking it through and how much energy and emotional intelligence raising a kid actually requires (hence why most of us millenials are in therapy or traumatized and dont want kids ourselves) and i feel like the self awareness and emotional intelligence combined with raised levels of consciousness (same thing as awareness) has lead to a decrease in having kids too because a lot of us realize its a sh!t ton of work and a lot of people arent equipped emotionally to raise a child or just dont feel like expending that effort... in short, we are more intelligent these days than the oldies and dont just have a billion kids negligently and then blame them for existing.

[GreenTRC]

Uncertainty of the future for sure. I'm scared to have children. I don't want them to suffer.

[Ekdrink]

It’s really not an issue of not wanting to have kids. It’s an issue of there being no feasible way to pay for having kids. 30 years ago it would be a struggle to raise a family. Now it’s a struggle to raise yourself and a fish tank.

[Lovesthecrazystories]

Who can afford them? I was raised under the poverty line. I got myself to a point where Im ok but kids would drag me right under financially. I refuse to put them in the same situation I grew up in. Thats the most selfish thing I could do to them. Money does matter. I couldn't afford daycare, their hobbies, or even basic necessities. I wouldn't want my focus diverted from them onto more work. I remember not being able to take advantage of amazing opportunities because of money. I remember not having electricity and living off ramen and kool-aid. I absolutely refuse to do that to an innocent child.

[samuraitadpole]

As long as we pay taxes despite government deficit spending and lack of caring for the citizens they have less than zero reason to change, we the people outnumber them but instead we're too busy focused on how other citizens look or act different to focus on politicians destroying us equally.

[kimberleyhosmer]

As a baby boomer grandma I completely agree with you that this needs to be addressed. Wages have not kept pace with inflation since the 1970’s. The tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations are a big part of the problem and the cap on how much of their income is taxed for Social Security is also an important factor for the solvency of the Social Security system. We need to stop allowing big money donors to exercise so much control over our political leaders. Vote for candidates who will stand up for the people over the billionaires!