I come from a rather large family with 8 siblings; I nor my siblings followed in our parents footsteps, except one brother. I have one brother that has his own little herd of children. Two of my sisters have two children each. I guess I'm selfish; I decided long ago that I dont want the hassle of children. My brother made the same decision early in his marriage but he told his wife she could have children, IF she really wanted. He said he would be the 'perfect parent' in public but she would have to raise the kids. He said he would prefer to send them to a boarding school until they were 18. For those reasons, she made the decision to not have kids; when they divorced, she did have a daughter with her new husband and spoiled the hell out of that kid. Her daugher had a 1500 ft² 'life size' doll house in the backyard which most people might consider a guest house.... however, they built it as a playhouse for their daughter.
I tend to piss off a few people because I dont believe you should have children unless you can afford them. Parents should be able to afford to pay ALL of a child's expenses: medical/dental, education, clothing, food, etc.. I believe parents should have to pay 100% of the expenses of educating their children; I dont believe taxpayers should get stuck with the bill for educating other's children.
If you can't feed 'em, dont breed 'em™
In my opinion, a good minimum 'income' for a single person is $60K; a couple should earn a minimum of $90K. For the first child, add another $10K.... each additional child, add $30K. Therefore, most American couples cannot afford to have children... and shouldn't. Yeah yeah... children bring great joy and are worth every expense. blah blah blah. If you have to go into debt (ie: credit cards) to buy your children clothes.... you cant afford them (the clothes or the children).
