Originally Posted by Bahamasflyer

Absolutely. It's about time someone says this straight up. Kids are NOT for everyone, just like college isn't either.

The high 5 and low 6 figure $$$ numbers that are being thrown around here are still less than the total cost of kids. I'm a late Gen Xer/early millennial, and I NEVER want kids and never have. The COVID-19 crisis has only proven what a good decision it was to remain childless.

Hell.....I worry enough about feeding myself in these troubling times. Why on Gods Green Earth do I want to have to worry about feeding someone else. Not to mention during my days off (pre-COVID at least) I put my travel benefits to use and visited Europe, Mexico, and many other places and had a blast. Never could have done that with kids, at least not nearly as hassle free.

And I haven't even mentioned the opportunity cost gain such as being able to move to base on a whim at your regional, move again to take the first available upgrade, move again to the junior base when moving onto a LCC or legacy, etc, rinse and repeat, as well not caring about good schools (2X for same home, 10 miles away).

Just to be clear, I'm not knocking others decisions to have kids. Instead, I'm just putting forth that simply having kids should not be the default thing, because if parenting is not totally in you blood and something you are passionate about, then that child will sense that and its terrible unfair to him/her.

I actually love kids. As long as I can return them to their parents at the end of the day.