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My take is a combination of factors - Decreased fertility ( Obesity maybe? ) - Cost of housing. - Children in the west are now overprotected little dictators

My take is a combination of factors - Decreased fertility ( Obesity maybe? ) - Cost of housing. - Children in the west are now overprotected little dictators and parents are no longer allowed to be humans with their own needs. Side rant: I just saw a linkedin post with a woman being flamed for choosing not not attend childs first day of school because she had an important work event to attend to. Father attended, not mother. Mother thus declared incompetent child abuser. I would never choose to have a child today. Mine are born just two seconds before the western world turned insane on parental demands. And kids are assholes. I love mine, but small children are generally selfish, oppurtunistic douchebags. Seing what my poor younger collegues go through today I would absolutely abstain from having any. Living on the edge of financial ruin and sleep depravation to pay half my income for a child that can threaten to call the social sevices on you for forcing them to bicycle to school instead of being driven by car is an easy choice not to make. Oddly specific story is a danish one from a collegue. They have a kids emergency phone or something in Denmark that is supposed to be used for abused children to alarm authorities of violence etc. Said collegue was reported, by their 11 year old, for failing to drive the kid to school and giving them bicycles instead. To add insult to injury, its an expensive private school they attend and denmark is a bicycle country. The authorities of course just dismissed the complaint and nothing ever happened. Kid had to bicycle. They have to investigate according to law though. And file a report. Sorry long rant. I feel genuinly sorry for young people trying to start a family. Bringing a child to the western world demands double phds in child psychiatry and Kardashian money.

ThrowawayTestr 2y ago
Why are people talking about their kids on LinkedIn? Also if I tried something like that with my mom I wouldn't see daylight for a year.
nytesky 2y ago
I think my kids are older than, yours as they are applying to college. My impression is that kids have always been terrible, and even my teen is self-involved and arrogant and short tempered with siblings despite all external perspectives are that they are a quite decent and competent human. Fertility is dropping, maybe it’s a factor, but being centered in developed nations it’s just the universal problem for 20 years: housing. Housing costs outstripped income since the 90s, and post pandemic and post inflation busting interest rates, providing the type of stable life to your kids seems unattainable. With kids you need bigger housing, you need a bigger car or a car at all, you need that housing to be some place safe and probably short distance from good schools. Even if you can afford that, which we can barely manage, than all our cash goes into housing, and there is less for retirement and college funds. Yes, people can accept cramped conditions or take a gamble their kids won’t be impact by a gritty neighborhood gang or what not, but people just decide to wait, hope for better fortunes, and then whoops no babies anymore.
add-sub-mul-div 2y ago
I totally agree about the cost issues. But could I suggest that maybe giving too much weight to social media "flaming" is related to also giving too much weight to dramatic anecdotes and mistaking them for trends?
AnimalMuppet 2y ago
> Decreased fertility ( Obesity maybe? ) Obesity may be a factor. But many people at least try to not have kids until they're married and stable. And people are marrying later. And female fertility declines and then stops with age.
BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago
I mean, you just described a system which is meant to protect kids from abuse that worked as intended when someone attempted to take advantage of it. I don’t think its the government trying to reduce abuse, I think its just the money.

ThrowawayTestr 2y ago

Why are people talking about their kids on LinkedIn? Also if I tried something like that with my mom I wouldn't see daylight for a year.

nytesky 2y ago

I think my kids are older than, yours as they are applying to college. My impression is that kids have always been terrible, and even my teen is self-involved and arrogant and short tempered with siblings despite all external perspectives are that they are a quite decent and competent human. Fertility is dropping, maybe it’s a factor, but being centered in developed nations it’s just the universal problem for 20 years: housing. Housing costs outstripped income since the 90s, and post pandemic and post inflation busting interest rates, providing the type of stable life to your kids seems unattainable. With kids you need bigger housing, you need a bigger car or a car at all, you need that housing to be some place safe and probably short distance from good schools. Even if you can afford that, which we can barely manage, than all our cash goes into housing, and there is less for retirement and college funds. Yes, people can accept cramped conditions or take a gamble their kids won’t be impact by a gritty neighborhood gang or what not, but people just decide to wait, hope for better fortunes, and then whoops no babies anymore.

add-sub-mul-div 2y ago

I totally agree about the cost issues. But could I suggest that maybe giving too much weight to social media "flaming" is related to also giving too much weight to dramatic anecdotes and mistaking them for trends?

AnimalMuppet 2y ago

> Decreased fertility ( Obesity maybe? ) Obesity may be a factor. But many people at least try to not have kids until they're married and stable. And people are marrying later. And female fertility declines and then stops with age.

BriggyDwiggs42 2y ago

I mean, you just described a system which is meant to protect kids from abuse that worked as intended when someone attempted to take advantage of it. I don’t think its the government trying to reduce abuse, I think its just the money.