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[–]RedEyedWarrior 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You can not have children and still be poor as fuck.

You can also be filthy rich and have 12 children. In fact, children are not expensive if you are smart with your finances and your parenting. For starters, you can keep your toys and pass them on to your children. You can also only give them one or two presents for Christmas. Besides, children don't have enough time to play with all of the toys they want to have anyway. You don't need to send your kids to college, you can just have them join a trade or go to community college. You can save money on clothes by having your older kids give the clothes that no longer fit them to the younger kids. Feed your kids vegetables and you take them to the doctor less often. It's not as expensive as you think. If both you and your spouse have to work, your parents can live with you and raise the children. It keeps your elderly parents active and independent for longer and you can save a ton of money on eldercare.

R/Childfree likes to propagate this myth that raising a child to 18 costs you upwards of $100,000. Even of that is true, guess what? That 100 grand comes from 18 years of paying bills that are a fraction of your wages. Not to mention inflation!

Don't get me wrong, if you don't want to have children, that's great. Power to you. But you're not saving money simply by not having children. And you're also not a superhero. You can still be an asshole regardless if you have children or not. And refusing to help out your family in need just because it's inconvenient is selfish and heartless. Everybody has to make sacrifices. It's one thing to shun a sibling who's a degenerate who is poor because he blows tons of money on stupid shit and neglects his kids - but if a responsible sibling falls on hard times, it's a good idea to help out. Just in case you need help from them one day, at least just for that.

I will add that I have a lot of relatives who never had kids. Instead, they looked after elderly members of the family, or provided additional support towards their nieces and nephews. My great aunt helped raise my dad, my uncles and my aunt. One time when my parents were struggling financially, my great aunt gave them the money they needed - she insisted on doing so and she refused any reward for it. She saw her action as helping out the family. I bet those Redditors wouldn't spare a penny for their struggling nieces or nephews.