Regret number of kids?

zygurat789

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

I would put a tax on child number three.

Why go to all the hassle and trouble to tax it? Why not just stop paying tax credits for the third and subsequent children?
This would save on HMRC admin, save the govt. paying out which means that taxation could be reduced and discourage those who have children for a payrise.

lazer

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

http://www.breathingearth.net/
I would put a tax on child number three.

If you are going to do that you are also going to have to increase tax, cut benefits overall or do away with the state pension, no free health treatment for people over 70 etc, as the UK cannot afford the ageing population we already have - never mind making it worse in future years.

[Deleted User]

lazer wrote: »

more children will be good for the UK in the long run

Ok, so lets see what happens if we increase the birth rate today. Shortly after there will be a reduction in the average age of the population as the babies appear, but in 2080 all those babies are going to be pensioners, thereby returning the average age of the population back to where it is today. In the mean time however, the population has been escalating out of control because you increased the birth rate back in 2013.

So now you have 3 choices:

a) Keep the birth rate where it is and live with the same average age as we have now, but with a population that is escalating unsustainably.
b) Increase the birth rate again and enjoy another temporary reduction in average age at the expense of an even more unsustainable population growth.
c) Solve the population growth by reducing the birth rate and suffer the temporary increase the average age above what it was in the first place.

Or alternatively you could just avoid embarking on such a daft policy in the first place.

lazer wrote: »

If you are going to do that you are also going to have to increase tax, cut benefits overall or do away with the state pension, no free health treatment for people over 70 etc, as the UK cannot afford the ageing population we already have - never mind making it worse in future years.

Britain is one of the richest countries on the planet, and with the exception of the last few years we are richer than at any time in history. The idea that we don't have the resources to provide for the elderly is arrant nonsense. The problem is that we have our priorities all wrong when we make choices about what we spend our wealth on.

savingjenny

I had three - for me that was perfect. More and I would have drowned in cleaning and washing. Less and I wouldn't have had enough cuddles.

But how close they remain as adults and how many grandkids you have is just the luck of the draw. Living in London I am lucky that all of mine are within a reasonable distance. But I have friends whose children are now scattered across the globe.

andrewf75

jack_pott wrote: »

Britain is one of the richest countries on the planet, and with the exception of the last few years we are richer than at any time in history. The idea that we don't have the resources to provide for the elderly is arrant nonsense. The problem is that we have our priorities all wrong when we make choices about what we spend our wealth on.

Well said. That sums it up very well. We are mostly a selfish society that has forgotten real values.

anotherMaggie

I don't think it's a strange question to wonder what the 50 or 60 or indeed 70 year old me might wish I had done.
I do realise they might live far away. That would make me think two is best so I could afford to travel to visit them.

melbury

I regret only having one child. I had always planned that I would have two but the time was never right for trying for a second one as OH and I were taking on a small business.

Now my son is grown up and married and I can fully comprehend why having a daughter as well is so important:)

Savvy_Sue

melbury wrote: »

Now my son is grown up and married and I can fully comprehend why having a daughter as well is so important:)

I've been asked if I didn't want a DD as well as the 3 boys, but the answer is "not enough to do it again ..."

I'm one of 5, 2 boys and 3 girls, boys at each end. Mum was asked if she didn't want another girl to even things out, but as she said "what if I have another 3 girls first?" :rotfl:

DH is one of two boys, so MIL and I stick up for each other!

John_Pierpoint

I staid [B&B&EM £14] with a three generation family on their small holding in S.America.
Neither of us spoke adequate Spanish (They spoke something dating back to Inca times). Their accommodation consisted of a full height room downstairs and a half height room upstairs, the access being a kind of fire escape on the outside of the building.. In addition there was a hand pump and sink outside and a separate single story building, incorporating the fire risk, a wood oven used for cooking and fresh meat in the form of guinea-pigs.
I also found a low stone building that housed overnight 5 unbelievably scraggy sheep and a few chickens.
The government had sponsored 2 x 5 sheets of corrugated iron that provided a modesty and rain protection for the two stoneware thrones and their plastic bucket.
Travellers, if any, got the upstairs and the use of one of the thrones.
Interior decoration had been achieved by papering the walls with with anything of interest, such as old calendars and labels from grain bags.
Don't misunderstand me, these people were not in darkest jungle territory, they lived on the outskirts of a village of similar properties and did enjoy enough electricity to power their three light bulbs and run a black and white TV, both supplied from a batter powered by a solar panel on the roof.
The household consisted of a couple, actually aged about 50, though a looking like pensioners of the "bag lady" type, plus a daughter in her 20s and her child aged about 4.
I suppose they were living in the conditions similar to those of the area of "plotlands" to which Londoners fled to avoid the blitz on East London, though the whole place was "rough hewn" from local wood, clay and stone.
[A marginal improvement on the "squatters cottage" at the Iron Bridge Gorge museum on the river Seven ].

The middle aged couple's proudest life time achievement was eventually producing a son after 7 female successful pregnancies. So that makes 10, the same as Blist hill; I wonder what future they have .

Spirit_2

I would have liked to have had more than one child. It is something OH and I both would have wanted.

Our resources would have stretched. Some material things would have been less, some personal experiences more.

Our love for our daughter is unlimted, there is room for others. She is not a squidgy little one, but a woman of 25. We love her and enjoy her company, she enhances our lives including the ups and downs.

I would have liked DD to have siblings, especially as an adult have more people around the table for family meals, and family special occassions, or even visting although as she is till living at home she is here too much at the moment. We have friends who we include in our family but there is a difference in how we feel and treat our DD and share experiences.

DD could be over focused on in terms of expectations and our interference as she is an only and we have taken a view that we must not do this: All our eggs in one basket in terms of prospects of grandchildren, future generation things, hopes dreams aspirations.

I also wish that she was not in sole charge of us if ever lose our minds, and had others to share decisions with.