The Decision to Have Children

We've rescheduled the meetup we had to postpone. Please join us as we explore the decision to have children. The discussion is in two parts:

Hour 1: Personal View--Have you decided whether to have children? What drives your personal decision to have children or not? Have you had specific experiences or learnings which have influenced you?

Hour 2: Societal View--Is society providing the right amount of support for parents? Should it be more or less? What specific changes would be fair?

Below is a list of optional readings for our meet-up on the Decision to have Children. If you only have time for a couple of readings, I suggest the first link in both Part 1 and Part 2. The Part 1 link to LessWrong describes one couple’s very detailed way that they decided whether to have a child. The Part 2 link at BirthGauge provides a global chart by country that shows changes in fertility rates worldwide.

Part 1: The Personal Decision on Whether to have Children
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/3MzDMBk4DZrbYePJS/kids-or-no-kids
https://ifstudies.org/blog/why-bother-having-kids
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/jun/10/un-population-fund-unfpa-report-reasons-falling-global-fertility
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2024/07/25/reasons-adults-give-for-not-having-children/
https://www.lendingtree.com/debt-consolidation/raising-a-child-study/
https://ifstudies.org/blog/the-true-cost-of-raising-a-child
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/ksmM82G4LRJCFQaHa/should-you-have-children-a-decision-framework-for-a-crucial
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/x7kiTYQ3FMmNn7r6d

Part 2: The Societal Impacts of Changing Fertility and What to Do
https://x.com/BirthGauge/status/2041541223324823612
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/09/30/growing-share-of-americans-say-fewer-people-having-kids-would-negatively-impact-the-us/
https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/a-fertility-reckoning
https://www.overcomingbias.com/p/13-fertility-scenarios

This meetup will be hosted by Keith.