In Kanadas Großstädten sind die Geburtenraten stark rückläufig. Was ist passiert?

Who can afford to have children when you can’t even afford to house yourselves?

Personally, my wife’s ovaries seemed to shrivel up when she saw the state of the world. We tried for years and then when we got to the IVF stage she was like „actually I don’t think I want this anyways, even aside from the cost.“ I’m in full support given *gestures broadly to everything*

If you are poor or a farmer kids are assets/workers; otherwise they are expensive so you have fewer if you are prosperous or live in an urban setting. A world wide phenomena.

Lol „What happened“?

It’s almost like people don’t relish the thought of raising 2 kids in an overpriced 1 bedroom apartment.

A mystery, really.

What happened? The “winner takes all” systematic approach to everything has sucked the will to live, let alone reproduce, out of the majority of people in western societies.

We are broke, more women focusing on careers, higher education means fewer children.

Isn’t it obvious? It’s happened in other countries as well. We need this was coming and it’s the reason immigration was ramped up (along with corporate greed).

Logically, you’d say affordability.

However, I lived in Finland for a few years and comparatively their housing is dirt cheap and I found food wildly affordable. They have tons of support mechanisms, free post secondary, top tier maternity leave which I believe extends to the father, and they have low fertility rates as well.

The immigrants that come into both countries though? Often have +2 kids and likely a 3rd on the way.

It’s not affordability guys, it’s cultural.  This has been happening for decades, all around the world, in good economies and bad.

You give people access to birth control, you take away social pressure to have kids, and people increasingly prioritize other things.  It isn’t rocket science.

The news keeps asking the same stupid questions.

Women got smart (educated) and realized there were options besides marriage, the kitchen, and kids.

Plus, of course, the cost of living does not help.

It’s probably why the more highly educated and equal a country becomes, the birth rate drops. The countries and demographics pumping out babies tend to be developing countries and religious sects.

This is such a stupid question. It’s pretty obvious.

Why would someone choose to have a child when:

1. Your employer will criticize any use of sick time, then use it against you for any career progression. You may even loose your job. Very little in terms of actual legal protection for parents in employment (labour laws are pretty easy to manipulate in favour of the employer).

Your fellow employees will judge you, they will not be supportive because we all have this stupid crabs in bucket capitalistic mentality.

Pregnancy sucks, it’s risky as heck for women and that is largely ignored. We’ve normalized women suffering in silence and being judged for suffering at all. 

Having small children sucks the life out of even the best of us. 

You will need more than legally mandated sick time for years even IF your child is healthy. 

AND, instead of being home raising your child in their most important developmental years… you likely have to ship them off to low paid strangers for 8+ hours a day to go back to work. 

Stay at home parenting is a luxury most do not get to enjoy these days.

2. Your income drops 52% or more if you take federal leave for maternity/paternity. Hardly any employers offer top ups. 

Then life is expensive. Daycare, food, housing… whatever. Reproductive aged people can’t afford it! 

Yeah, there are some tax breaks for families. But they don’t make up for an overall lack of infrastructure and funding to support youth. 

Poverty is a huge factor in childhood. Addiction, mental health, general health, education and lifetime socioeconomic status risks are drastically increased for them. Results in more kids living in poverty. It’s a cycle that we love to ignore.

3. Society loves to make life harder for people with children, then whines about people not having kids.

There’s no community for a large amount of parents. No grandparents or extended family close by to help raise the kids. Even if they are, our society is so individualistic that Boomers and Gen Xers have the stereotypical reputation of being absent grandparents.

Then we all vote against anything that benefits families, because it doesn’t immediately benefit us. 

People are too selfish to realize the long-term benefits of making sure children and families are supported. 

cost of living, cost of housing, putting foreigners before our own citizens with support programs, court, social dynamics and social media, huge one absolute fuck show of what is now heath care, and our education system.

No hope my life won’t just be harder year after year without me living the way I do now and knowing what it’s like to lose it all and have to start again. I“m tired boss and need far less then ever to exist and be happy because i stopped caring about society as a whole and being engaged. And as I see more friends and colleagues doing the exact same thing and feeling the same i realize it not me broken or being slanted by media or politics or a propaganda like I worried about it actually is getting that ridiculous.

Since this has been declining since the 70’s- I wonder if it’s the realization of the inequality of parenthood.

By all metrics, married women with kids do worse than her single counterparts- they have lower life expectancies, less job and overall life satisfaction, higher stress. On the flip side- married men live longer, receive job advancements during fatherhood and have higher overall satisfaction.

I think we need to make motherhood much more respected for the sacrifice it is and more supported but that will require a cultural shift that I don’t think grocery rebates or more housing will fix.

It’s almost as if, and hear me out now, people don’t want to have kids when they can barely afford to provide for themselves.