We aren't planning on having kids because we don't want to, but that decision is made significantly easier by the cost of childcare being more than my wife makes in a year and a two bedroom apartment costing another $1-1.5k a month. There's a reason why friends have kids and then leave the city.
It’s nothing short of a miracle that we were able to move from a 1br to a stabilized 2br for only $43 more each month. I hate to reduce this to election punditry, but between that and childcare, Cuomo v. Zohran has very existential implications for our ability to live in the city.
this this this 100% this, when I still thought I wanted kids I could not circle the square of how to remain in the city
Basically everyone I know who has kids, hasn't gotten very lucky with an apartment or isn't making 250k+ a year, has left. It's bad
I've had relatives tell me we don't *have* to live in New York City, which is true but we don't have to have kids, either, and I'm not going to tank my own quality of life so you have some cute little kids to see maybe 5x a year. That's insane
Man this was something that really pissed me off when JD Vance was poo-pooing childcare as something only elites do like it's some kind of cultural choice. Of course lower-income parents are quitting their jobs rather than sending kids to daycare, it's the less-costly alternative for most Americans!
We have two kids, a minivan, and a house that could fit a third kid, so day care would be the only additional major expense in the next few years. You’d still have to pay me at least 7 figures to have a third.
All the Natalist freaks want to address everything except the cost of living when that’s basically the primary force for a lot of people not being able to raise kids.
And that's before you deal with the career opportunity costs of providing care!
This culture hates working parents. Hates them.
Without massive changes, I just can't wrap my head around how this city survives in any way that's not just a transient playground for wealthy young adults
My wife wanted to move to the burbs. I desperately wanted to stay in the city. We compromised by buying a SFH with a yard in the Bronx. Lower taxes, only needing one car, and UPK make living in the city cheaper than any of the suburbs with a comparable commute.
It’s very sad to think of all the children robbed of a childhood in the city