In the UK I know a lot of people who can't afford decent housing, who can't afford weddings, who can't afford retirement, who struggle against a rent-keeping ub

In the UK I know a lot of people who can't afford decent housing, who can't afford weddings, who can't afford retirement, who struggle against a rent-keeping uber-efficient capitalist age to not live month to month. Against this back drop a choice emerges: To take what little is left and use that to eke out some semblance of life, some work/life balance... that first they delay having children from their 20s to their 30s. Then when they arrived in their 30s they're still very much behind where they had planned to be (wars, Brexit, COVID, financial crashes, inflation, etc)... and they're either delaying to their 40s or just accepting now that this was not for them. They wanted a decent life, it included children... but in reality the economic reality and pace of life has precluded it. I'm late 40s, that was my reality (further delayed start due to being homeless when younger and having an even worse starting point)... and I get it, it's hard. Having children feels like something that has become the preserve of the wealthy or the poor, and if one wishes to achieve a betterment in your own lifetime - a social mobility, then you're likely choosing against having children. I've long accepted this, but once in a rare moon I get to just write it down like this as there's definitely shame involved at making those choices (and it's way worse for women who are constantly asked when they're going to have children, whereas men are mostly left alone on the subject).