Economy Making you Afraid to have more Kids?

I'm curious if the economy is affecting your desire to have children or have another if you have a kid or two now. I admit it does bother me (I have one). It didn't until today on NPR - basically the message that things are bad but will get far worse.

Childcare is expensive - I don't mind it part time but full time...not as excited about that. That assumes you have a job or a decent income or it's not even worth it.

Not sure who to believe - the pessimists or the optimists - or how to weather if it gets much worse. All this makes me wonder if it's a good time to have children. How about you?

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Permalink Reply by Amydeanne on November 24, 2008 at 9:04am

I"ve got 4 little ones, and I"m not really worried about it. That being said we're not having anymore kids either! I like what Toni said, it really says it well!

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Permalink Reply by The Happy Housewife on November 24, 2008 at 9:07am

Sheryl raises a great point. Kids are as expensive as you allow them to be. For baby #7 our out of pocket costs will be almost nothing. I am considering going with cloth diapers this time around, so that will probably be our only big cost in the beginning. We shop for everything but shoes at consignment/ thrift stores and we receive tons of hand-me-downs, I also sew and make a lot of the kids' clothes. We also pass on clothes/ toys to other families. If you feel you must purchase everything new and buy every latest fad in the baby world, you will spend a lot of money. I haven't carried a diaper bag in years, a backpack works fine. We do replace car seats every few years, but with sales, coupons/ gift cards even that cost is minimal. Our main focus is saving for college, we don't plan on paying for their entire schooling (we both paid for our own and saw the benefits of paying for your own ed.) but we do want to help them out and not have finances limit their school choices.
Toni

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Permalink Reply by Missives From Suburbia on November 24, 2008 at 11:37am

Finances have always played into our decision about whether or not to have children and how many, because we want to be able to have a family but maintain a particular standard of living at the same time. I'm expecting our second and last child this month, and regardless of the economy, two is all we've ever believed we could truly afford and still be able to travel, retire at a reasonable age and pay for college.

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Permalink Reply by Newspapergrl on November 24, 2008 at 11:50am

I just got remarried and my new husband so far insists that things all match and are new. We also love having fun and taking vacations. Then there has to be savings and investing (including for college funds). His tastes mean that we spend a lot more per person. He loves using coupons though.

I don't complain because my first husband was the opposite - we didn't have much and didn't spend much. I grew up in a large family and my parents economized. I always wore 2nd hand clothes. Some of my favorite clothes were thrift store finds. We didn't eat out very often (a few times a year).

I don't believe in FT childcare for the first few years (until school aged). So with those constraints we'll probably only have one child together. However, he's never been a dad and who knows how we'll feel if we have one.

I find myself worrying about basic needs, like food. Not because anything has changed for us but it feels like things are unsteady. I'm not much of a shopper but I can hardly enjoy it because it seems like we shouldn't buy anything but the essentials.

This is a great discussion and would make a good article if I were writing about this topic. I'll link to it from my site www.paisleybabies.com.

-Janet

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Permalink Reply by The Happy Housewife on November 24, 2008 at 1:14pm

Newspaper girl-
I don't think having a big family means you don't have fun or take vacations. Our family travels all the time. We usually take a mini vacation (long weekend) every six weeks and take a true vacation 1 or 2 times a year. My kids love the thrift store. One this we like to do is bring home our purchases and then research online how much money we saved. I almost always purchase brand name clothes and the are like or or still have the tags on. I am very frugal at the grocery store. We make almost all our meals from scratch and we eat very healthy.
I always enjoy shopping because there are so many great deals out there. It is fun to sit down to a delicious dinner for eight and realize that it cost less than $10.
We don't eat out very often, mainly because I am always thinking about how much better and cheaper it would be if I made it at home. The thought of paying $4-$6 dollars for a child's plate at a restaurant takes away my appetite. We rarely get fast food, so if we go out it is usually for steak or seafood.
I recycle/ reuse everything and I hope my kids grow up to do the same. It bothers me to see people waste food, clothing, toys, etc....
Anyway- my point is that it can be done. You can live frugal and fun life with lots of kids. Actually having lots of kids is fun, in and of itself. I am not trying to convince anyone to have a big family, but I wouldn't not have a child based on finances. When we had 2 kids my husband worked two jobs to help pay the bills, it wasn't fun, but we learned a lot.

One thing we have done is when my husband received a large promotion several years back we decided to live on his old salary. Throughout the past 5 years we have continued this policy even with several more raises. He is getting a big raise next year and we had fun over the weekend, planning our investment strategy for the extra money.
I write a lot about frugal living at my blog if anyone is interested in reading about a frugal big family :).
Toni

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Permalink Reply by Willowbottom on November 24, 2008 at 1:49pm

I think it depends on your situation, age ranges, etc. We're done having our own, having agreed that creating our own biological children is not socially responsible and not what we're into ... but we have thought very seriously about adopting. However but full-time childcare for just our own two children is approximately $21,000/yr. It'll go down when they become school-aged (daycare makes private school seem like a deal!) but it's still far too high for us to consider taking responsibility for another child when considering that child care for another would add on approximately $9,000 alone before even considering food, clothing, medical and other expenses. It's sad to me that we have to wait to help another child in the way that the child deserves and we'd like to help -- it's also ironic that we need to wait to help until things get better for us all. But the fact is that if either of us lost a job, we'd be in a world of hurt and we can't take responsibility for anyone other than ourselves right now.

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Permalink Reply by Colleen Felz on November 24, 2008 at 4:16pm

I think that no matter what you can make it work if you want more children. The economy will go up and down. You have no control over that. We plan to have as many kids as we feel comfortable raising.

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Permalink Reply by Christie on November 25, 2008 at 8:11am

We are just starting our family, and it definitely has me nervous. We are going to cloth diaper to save some money and hope that friends will pump for us (we are having a surrogate-pregnancy and I can't induce lactation). Other than that, we will try to make as much money as we can and live within our means.

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Permalink Reply by Kristina on November 25, 2008 at 9:47am

We've got one toddler, and we have one on the way. While the country's financial situation might cause me to be a bit more cautious and more financially frugal once baby #2 arrives, it's not going to be the final, binding nor even the biggest influence on our decision to grow our family if we so chose to.

As others have pointed out, whether you have children or not, you personally make a choice to live frugally, with mountains of strangling debt, or any level in between. That in my opinion will affect a family's ability to "afford" having more children more than the state of the national economy will.

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Permalink Reply by Ruthie Appleby on November 25, 2008 at 11:30am

It's always a good time to have children :)
Kids are fun
Ruthie
http://www.homeinteriors.com/Ruthieappleby

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Permalink Reply by Ommay on November 26, 2008 at 7:40am

We have waited and waited trying to find the 'perfect' time to have more children (I already have two skids). We finally came to the realization that there is never a 'perfect' time and I will not always be able to plan in out just how I want.

We will be happy when we can add to our family. Things may not always be ideal but we will have a good, blessed life and the L-rd will take care of us!

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Permalink Reply by Christine on November 28, 2008 at 1:31pm

You say, you have one child already...I bet twenty years from now, your child (he or she, if they had to choose) would be more happy to have a brother or sister instead of a new toy or game system. No matter how much money we have, how great our job is, what our parents are going to leave us when they pass....It is always a sacrifice in many ways to care properly for a new baby. Listen to your heart...God never said "wait until the new president makes it all better ?????" It's not his choice... it's YOUR INFORMED choice......be greatful we still have that for now !!!!!!!!!