Some great points and comments below. I’d posit that it’s a bit like a perfect storm.
Here in the UK many things are stacked against having children and having more children.
(Nice) home rental costs are a huge factor plus lost are small units and short term tenancies. Ensuring it’s hard to save deposits to buy a house and equally diffic…
Some great points and comments below. I’d posit that it’s a bit like a perfect storm.
Here in the UK many things are stacked against having children and having more children.
(Nice) home rental costs are a huge factor plus lost are small units and short term tenancies. Ensuring it’s hard to save deposits to buy a house and equally difficult to start a family in due to money and space.
New houses are tiny and very expensive. Not lending themselves to a growing family.
Stamp duty restricts buyers. Essentially a tax on buying a house constrains the money and desire to trade up (think £15k tax bill for my next step up to a decent size family house where I’d want more than 2 kids).
Cars and car seats. A decent car for more than 2 kids. Not that many around.
Each kid needs a car seat. Each car needs one for each. Huge costs and constraint on bringing another child into the family.
Schools and nursery places restrict family growth. The lower chance that your children will all get into the same local schools or decent ones. There is no guarantee.
Nursery the same.
Then the costs. Childcare is a mortgage level event for many years if you have more than one child. Yes, you might not have more than 2 in childcare at any one time. But for 2 children think £1k a month.
Schools cost money also. School dinners, clubs, uniforms, trips. I sometimes feel like Al Bundy on the opening credits of “married with children” (great classic show btw).
I think you/we get the point. Some policies can help here. Build more family homes. Reduce or remove stamp duty. Deregulate some aspects of childcare. Transport and transport policies. Others are things we need to adjust our life to.
Kids make life worth living. So more kids in my view correlates with more living.
Some great points and comments below. I’d posit that it’s a bit like a perfect storm.
Here in the UK many things are stacked against having children and having more children.
(Nice) home rental costs are a huge factor plus lost are small units and short term tenancies. Ensuring it’s hard to save deposits to buy a house and equally difficult to start a family in due to money and space.
New houses are tiny and very expensive. Not lending themselves to a growing family.
Stamp duty restricts buyers. Essentially a tax on buying a house constrains the money and desire to trade up (think £15k tax bill for my next step up to a decent size family house where I’d want more than 2 kids).
Cars and car seats. A decent car for more than 2 kids. Not that many around.
Each kid needs a car seat. Each car needs one for each. Huge costs and constraint on bringing another child into the family.
Schools and nursery places restrict family growth. The lower chance that your children will all get into the same local schools or decent ones. There is no guarantee.
Nursery the same.
Then the costs. Childcare is a mortgage level event for many years if you have more than one child. Yes, you might not have more than 2 in childcare at any one time. But for 2 children think £1k a month.
Schools cost money also. School dinners, clubs, uniforms, trips. I sometimes feel like Al Bundy on the opening credits of “married with children” (great classic show btw).
I think you/we get the point. Some policies can help here. Build more family homes. Reduce or remove stamp duty. Deregulate some aspects of childcare. Transport and transport policies. Others are things we need to adjust our life to.
Kids make life worth living. So more kids in my view correlates with more living.