Show me the money - young family

[Kiddo]

Eddie didn't seem to give them any basic assistance like how to make a meal for the family on a few quid i.e. a stew or casserole. Personally, I thought they were pretty clueless with money so tips like this could have really helped them. "Look after the pennies......"

Its a financial programme not a cookery one...though maybe Eddie will rise the challange. He could call it "Show me the Bacon" ?

 

[Bonafide]

It’s a shame that they did not realise the general cost of things before they decided to have a two-child family. They just did what was the norm 30 years ago. It underlines the fact that we need to introduce personal finance and budgeting as a compulsory part of the mathematics leaving certificate curriculum. Most kids leave school now with no idea of how to handle their income when they join the workforce. As a result problems just get compounded like in the case of this young family. Sure they made some poor decisions, but the obviously didn’t realise fully the implications that these decisions were going to have.

 

[tiger]

It’s a shame that they did not realise the general cost of things before they decided to have a two-child family. They just did what was the norm 30 years ago. It underlines the fact that we need to introduce personal finance and budgeting as a compulsory part of the mathematics leaving certificate curriculum.

For me that was one of the key issues of the show. Has Ireland become a place where a young couple can't think about starting a family until they are financially on their feet (earning €40K+), possibly with both partners working, or were the couple in question just bad with money?

It looks like contraception as well as finance needs to be part of the curriculum

 

[Bonafide]

Has Ireland become a place where a young couple can't think about starting a family until they are financially on their feet (earning €40K+), possibly with both partners working, or were the couple in question just bad with money?

I think that unfortunately Ireland has become that kind of place. If a young couple get their family planning wrong and end up with children at a young age the kind of salary a young person can earn (outside of the construction sector) just isn't enough to get by with. Is it any wonder that so many similar young people in that situation don't get married and the mother just puts her name down on the public housing list.

 

[ClubMan]

All of my siblings have several kids, single parent working (not in any professional/high powered/paid jobs), own their own homes (bar one who rents) and cars and seem to have comfortable enough lifestyles. I don't think that it's necessarily the case that Ireland is unaffordable for families.

 

[Humpback]

Has Ireland become a place where a young couple can't think about starting a family until they are financially on their feet (earning €40K+), possibly with both partners working,

This just makes me mad. Why is it that the activity of having children should raise such a comment?

Myself and my partner can't get married and have our ideal honeymoon of a round the world holiday for 3 months until we're financially on our feet either.

But you don't hear us complaining and looking for handouts from the government (childcare costs!!!) in order to help us go on do the things that we want to do???

Having children shouldn't be any different. If you can't afford it, don't do it.

 

[tiger]

This just makes me mad. Why is it that the activity of having children should raise such a comment?

Sorry, probably not explaining myself well. I'm not suggesting that people shouldn't be financially responsible, my question is has the bar become too high?

 

[TarfHead]

.. If you can't afford it, don't do it.

In our case, we reduced our spend to be able to afford it. When we were both working and looking to step up from apartment to house, we could have got a bigger (nicer ?) house with a huge mortgage and deferred starting a family for a couple of years. Instead we bought our house based on a mortgage that one salary could support and, 2 kids later, are smug about that approach.

People have choices to make - you can't have it both ways.

 

[Bonafide]

This just makes me mad. Why is it that the activity of having children should raise such a comment?

Myself and my partner can't get married and have our ideal honeymoon of a round the world holiday for 3 months until we're financially on our feet either.

But you don't hear us complaining and looking for handouts from the government (childcare costs!!!) in order to help us go on do the things that we want to do???

Having children shouldn't be any different. If you can't afford it, don't do it.

You can't really compare a having a child to an ideal honeymoon of a round the world holiday for 3 months. What if the child was unexpected? Why aren't children entitled to recognition by the state (or handouts from the government (childcare costs!!!) as stated above). The average worker will work and contribute to the state from when they are roughly twenty until they are roughly sixty-five. They will benefit from the state before and after that period. Seems like a fair trade off.

 

[ClubMan]

Why aren't children entitled to recognition by the state (or handouts from the government (childcare costs!!!) as stated above).

They are - including the new €1K p.a. for the under 6's, the [broken link removed] where applicable, , etc.

 

[Bonafide]

I am aware of that Clubman, I was merely arguing the point and asking ronan_d_john why shouldn't children be entitled based on the following quote from post #66

"But you don't hear us complaining and looking for handouts from the government (childcare costs!!!)"

Sorry if this was not clear.