Do you want to have kids?
If so, when and how many? It’s a big decision
They may be small bundles of joy, but they can cost a fortune
As people weigh up the pros and cons of procreating...
...fewer children are being born, especially in the rich world
And in the long-term, this can mean fewer young workers to support the elderly
So is it worth having kids?
I went back and forth a lot in the beginning
A lot of thought that went into...
...weighing the options of both having kids and not having kids
Jessica and her husband, Andrey...
...live in Houston, Texas, with their two-year-old son, Michael
The day he was born I was overcome with a lot of emotion, happiness, just joy...
...it’s crazy
So having children makes people happy, right?
In the short-term, yes...
...but in the long-term, not necessarily
According to academics...
...it’s likely Jessica was experiencing what’s known as a happiness bump
Mothers’ happiness levels rise in the years leading up to giving birth...
...but that’s where they peak
And within a few years, return to the level they were before the kid was born
We’ve been studying men and women in couples with and without children...
...and we see that their levels of happiness and life satisfaction...
...mental health and loneliness are quite similar
That’s quite consistent across a lot of different countries
Some factors do affect people’s happiness, such as their income...
...and whether they are single parents
Parents and countries with stronger...
...welfare systems also report higher levels of happiness
But all in all, there isn’t much difference...
...between the life satisfaction of parents and people without kids
While there might be moments during the day...
...that are filled with happiness...
...the more typical experience is that being together with your children...
...can be quite stressful
It also takes up much of your time and energy
It brings with it a lot of worries
Let’s do downward facing dog together, ready?
I thought motherhood would be, you know...
...you see all the stuff in the movies...
...I really thought that it would be this beautiful time...
...where you’d have a great relationship with your kid...
...but also, you know, a little bit of hard work, too, that...
...I don’t think I understood before we decided to have Michael
About 80% of parents in America say parenting is enjoyable...
...but almost 30% also admit it’s stressful, all or most of the time
If children won’t make you happy, why have them?
For most of history, people had lots of children...
...which made financial sense because kids could work in the fields...
...and look after their parents in old age
But as societies have grown richer...
...there has been a reduction in procreation
We’ve seen a change in why people have children...
...and the economic incentives to having children
So as we have more countries offering...
...pensions, older adults are less reliant...
...on their adult children to provide for them in their older years
And at the same time, we see more women...
...getting higher levels of education, being employed
We also see a change in attitudes
A move towards secularisation, so less importance of religion
A rise in feminism, a rise in women’s rights...
...and childhood extends...
...because we need to educate our children longer...
...so the costs of raising children go up
And kids can be costly
The costs start even before birth
Fertility treatment for those who need it is expensive
And in some countries, giving birth in a hospital can cost thousands of dollars
Then there’s food, clothes, nappies, toys, baby carriers and prams
The Economist has calculated that a typical American family...
...can expect to spend almost $300,000 raising a child to the age of 17
Factor in college tuition and it rises to over $400,000
For Jessica and Andrey in Houston...
...those costs are about to go up even more...
...they’re expecting their second child
Oh, no, let’s not touch that
The financial implications are big
Children are expensive
I mean, there is less stuff to buy...
...you know, just because we already have...
...you know, a car seat and all that stuff from Michael
We are saving for education and all that stuff for two kids instead of one
The strain on Jessica’s and Andrey’s budget...
...is not helped by the fact America is the only rich country...
...that doesn’t have nationwide statutory paid parental leave
Instead, federal policy is just 12 weeks of unpaid leave...
...but there are so many restrictions
Only 56% of workers are eligible...
...and many feel they can’t afford to sacrifice their salary for this long
At the time when Michael was born...
...I was the primary breadwinner for our family
I did not get paid maternity leave
That definitely played a role in terms of deciding...
...how long of a maternity leave to take
Then after two months, I went back to work full-time
It was definitely hard leaving Michael after two months...
...just because that’s around the time when kids...
...start to become a little bit more interactive
Babies start to smile...
...so I almost felt like I was missing out on something...
...by going back to work so soon
Statutory parental leave in rich countries varies greatly
In Japan, parents are given about a year of paid parental leave each...
...of which half is paid at about...
...two-thirds of their normal salary
In Finland, parents are given about 14 months of paid leave to share
They’re also entitled to take further child-care leave up until their child is three
In Britain, a mother’s job is guaranteed for a year...
...but only six weeks are paid at almost full salary
A further 33 weeks are paid, but at a much lower level
It means Britain has one of the least generous leave policies in Europe...
...which can make it harder for some Brits to balance their budgets
What do you like mixing into pancakes?
Chocolate eggs
Faye lives in the south of England with her husband Matt...
...and their three-year-old daughter Eloise
Ready, last one. Do you want to do it with me?
I took 12 months maternity leave...
...so the last three months of maternity leave were unpaid, unfortunately...
...but it was something that we sat down...
...and worked out that we could achieve financially...
...with my husband doing extra overtime
Even before those final three months...
...there isn’t a huge amount of pay for maternity leave
We just had to be financially very conscious of what we were spending
Yeah you can still find all the edge bits first can’t you?
And those challenges don’t end when the parent goes back to work
When we were looking at our finances, we didn’t really factor in nursery costs
When we then looked at child-care costs, it was huge
Some months she was going two days a week and some months...
...it was more than our mortgage
The costs are sometimes crippling
In six OECD countries...
...couples earning the average wage spend over 20% of their salaries on child-care
Britain has the joint second-most-expensive child-care in the world
We have thought about having another child...
...unfortunately, the cost side of things does have a big impact
I could give up work, but I don’t want to rely on benefits or income support
We want to be self-sufficient
If that means not having another child...
...because of the financial implications...
...it’s upsetting because we would love to have another one
It’s not just in Britain
A survey of young American adults...
...found that of those who said they have, or expect to have...
...fewer children than they’d like...
...64% cited childcare costs as a reason
Hi, I’m Anna and I directed this film
If you’re enjoying watching it, you might be interested to know...
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And now on with the film
It’s not just the direct costs
Having kids can also affect how much mothers earn
Most parents experience a loss in take-home pay when they take parental leave
Men in heterosexual relationships experience a very small, short-term dip...
...but for women, the dip is much bigger and their earnings rarely recover
This is known as the motherhood penalty
Joeli Brearley is the founder of the British charity, Pregnant Then Screwed
The motherhood penalty is the pay differential between mothers...
...and other types of employees
It’s essentially a procreation pay gap
When you have a baby, the way that our parental-leave system functions...
...it encourages women to take long periods of time out of the workforce
It doesn’t encourage men to do the same
In most heterosexual couples, the father will earn the most money
So when women look to return to work, they look at the cost of child-care...
...and they compare it to their own salary...
...and in most cases it doesn’t add up
They then start to make career sacrifices
They look to return part-time, if at all...
...or they change jobs to something that’s more suitable...
...so that they can continue to do the lion’s share of the caring and the unpaid labour
And so all of this starts to hack away at their income and their career progression
In Britain, mothers are three times more likely to work part-time than fathers
Following the pandemic, the shift to remote working...
...has made it easier for some parents to work more flexibly
But not all jobs allow this
My work are very flexible, but it’s a juggle and at times just trying to work out...
...my working pattern to be able to make it worthwhile...
...me actually working and financially contributing to the house
I work office hours and my husband does shift work
I’m only three hours off full-time, so legally...
...and technically I am a part-time worker
It’s the most amount I can work that...
...I then don’t have to spend all of it on child-care
Motherhood penalties vary across the world
One study looks at motherhood penalties in six rich countries
It finds that Germany, a country where a lot of women work part-time...
...had the worst penalty, with a 61% drop in long-run earnings...
...while Denmark and Sweden had the smallest but still sizeable penalties
That’s partly because Scandinavian countries...
...have longer and better paid paternity leave
We’ve seen as a result of that in Sweden...
...that many more dads are taking time out of the workplace to care for their children
And as a result of that, we’ve seen that the gender pay gap is much smaller...
...the share of the unpaid labour is far more equal
Over the last 50 or 60 years, we’ve seen big changes in gender dynamics...
...and in countries where we’ve seen that men have become more equal partners...
...with women in raising kids
We see that fertility rates are actually higher than in similar countries...
...where men aren’t contributing as much to child-rearing and housework
Take Japan...
...where women spend far more time on household chores and child-care...
...than men do, making it much harder for women to have a career...
...and raise children despite having some of the most generous maternity...
...and paternity leave on the planet
Which might explain why Japan has one of the lowest fertility rates in the world
In nearly all rich industrialised countries...
...fertility rates have fallen below 2.1 children per woman...
...the rate needed to maintain a stable population
And on a macroeconomic level, that can cause problems
So if fertility falls low enough...
...then there are potentially not enough workers in the next generation...
...in the long-term, it means a change in the labour force
How many workers are available
How much money those workers are paying into pension programmes
Into taxes?
Most industrialised countries are pretty far from that level...
...although there are few that have seen really dramatic reductions in fertility
More open immigration policies could help...
...but few countries seem willing to consider them
So if falling birth rates can cause economic disruption...
...should governments intervene?
We want to be careful that governments aren’t doing things that are coercive...
...or that unduly restrict people’s freedom to have the kind of families...
...and the number of children that they want
But there is a role for government, for supporting families with children...
...and in many countries, there is certainly a lot more room...
...for investment from the public sector
But it’s not just about the economics, although that’s part of it
But it’s also about cultural ideals
It’s about the influence of religion
It’s about the compatibility of motherhood and careers...
...and it’s about gender dynamics
Choosing to have children is a big decision...
...governed by deep emotions as well as practicalities
More generous parental leave, cheaper child-care and flexibility at work...
...might make the decision a bit easier
But despite the challenges of parenthood...
...those who do choose to have babies rarely regret it
Being a mom has come with its own struggles...
...and redefining your own image to yourself
But yeah, at the end of the day...
...life is just fuller with a new person in your family
It’s the hardest thing you ever do becoming a parent...
...but it’s the most rewarding
I’ve never experienced...
...such extreme levels of joy and happiness and elation and pride...
...as I have since I’ve had children