I thought this was kind of an interesting issue that I read about. For a lot of people when it comes to starting a family, issues about finances come up with a lot of people struggling to make ends meat. One topic that came up is something that has always crossed my mind which I have rarely heard people talk about.
Stories and figures on how expensive it is to have a child and all is nothing new as I’m pretty sure everyone is in agreement with that. It’s not too rare to also hear people with say five kids or more accumulate a hefty bill at the end of the month that they can’t handle. Now the usual scenario that I would read about is how people would start blaming the economy or the system on how it is not very good and that people need more support just to get by. Basically, it is presented in a tragic type of way. The interesting topic that was brought up was how isn’t it a little ridiculous that a person who is struggling to get by financially decides to bring a child into the world in the first place or that a person who can only afford to do so much still goes ahead and has say five kids?
I guess this can kind of be a touchy subject for a lot of people. Just for the record, I personally don’t have kids and won’t have to deal with this issue until way later in life, so my perspective is mostly based on what I see from a logical point of view. In general though, I personally think when it comes to starting a family that you really have to take self responsibility for the most part in terms of your financial challenges as to me it doesn’t seem fair to the child or to blame others for being unprepared financially to handle a family life.
The interesting thing for me is that most under 30’s people constantly say how that age is the time to start having kids even if you can’t afford it right away as you are risking your ability to even have children at all. On the flip side, most people who already have kids or are over thirty usually say to me that it is better to wait until you are truly prepared to do so financially as there is no real rush.
Is having a child considered as an entitlement in our lives where someone else must ensure that we will have an ideal circumstance to do so despite what our personal financial situations are and if so just how much is too much before one can say that the person needs to stop instead of making it sound like the world is doing them wrong? I guess in general, my way of thinking for this topic would be that if the opportunities and pathways surrounding your life are for the most part controllable as a result of your own actions and direction then you can’t really complain as you molded your life to where it’s at.
Of course, in the end the whole point of bringing up topics like these are to hopefully enlighten people to make wise decisions as in the end no one really wants to see others struggle in these types of situations.