[saiya-jin]

Well I can tell you that even if recent price hikes don't change anything in our budgeting, having more than 2 kids is simply a no-go, which is number below maintaining current population.

Its simply too effin' hard for most of us that have actual jobs, started from 0 and are not cruising on money/possibilities our parents showered us with. After 2 kids, I simply don't see the point in 3rd, the 'parental fulfillment' won't get higher, definitely happiness won't as numerous studies proven, just more chaos, less sleep and patience, more conflicts. People I casually ask about this all seem to agree, why more than 2, heck some are fine with 1 (I would call it parenting easy mode, it didn't feel like that back then, but when looking now with 2nd it was a very chill period).

Also tons of young now feel far from rest of family which is cool for independence and such, but when SHTF with kids you realize that often grandparents and rest of family are not so bad despite their flaws.

The bar for being a good parent is so damn high these days, compared to 'most kids survived into adulthood' not so long ago. And even most western countries do give very little in terms of support for new parents. So no wonder it looks intimidating to many