Agreed. Perception and actual economic feasability are two different things, especially when combined with cultural expectations. If a teen girl is expected by high school senior year to be prepared to be married and by 19 have a first child, and that's pounded into her head at home, at school, and daily in her neighborhood, then it's a high likelihood that will happen. On the other hand, people raised that the cost of living is expensive, the household is always a on a budget, and raising a family is costly tends to leave a long-lasting impression in a young adult to avoid having children right away, regardless of child savings accounts or tax code incentives for growing families, for example. Regardless of what economists may actually say is doable, people and what they see, believe or hear from others are influenced far more towards children or not.
I know in my own example, I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s knowing kids right away was not doable. And it really wasn't viable until my 30s. Both of us also grew up with plenty of examples we know where people had teen pregnancies or married right out of high school and all were disasters. My wife didn't even want kids at first, and she's the same age as me. We ended up having two because it made sense in our mid-30s once we were financially secure and in house, not an apartment. That combination of income, housing, and feeling one is on track clicks in the head that a family then makes sense.
Agreed. Perception and actual economic feasability are two different things, especially when combined with cultural expectations. If a teen girl is expected by high school senior year to be prepared to be married and by 19 have a first child, and that's pounded into her head at home, at school, and daily in her neighborhood, then it's a high likelihood that will happen. On the other hand, people raised that the cost of living is expensive, the household is always a on a budget, and raising a family is costly tends to leave a long-lasting impression in a young adult to avoid having children right away, regardless of child savings accounts or tax code incentives for growing families, for example. Regardless of what economists may actually say is doable, people and what they see, believe or hear from others are influenced far more towards children or not.
I know in my own example, I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s knowing kids right away was not doable. And it really wasn't viable until my 30s. Both of us also grew up with plenty of examples we know where people had teen pregnancies or married right out of high school and all were disasters. My wife didn't even want kids at first, and she's the same age as me. We ended up having two because it made sense in our mid-30s once we were financially secure and in house, not an apartment. That combination of income, housing, and feeling one is on track clicks in the head that a family then makes sense.