One of the primary modern arguments for why having children is hard is the idea that it’s so expensive to raise them. But in a recent CT article, Bonnie Kristian explains why she isn’t so sure that’s the main reason.

As she takes a look at a new book by Anastasia Berg and Rachel Wiseman titled What Are Children For?: On Ambivalence and Choice, Kristian considers the argument that while financial hardships are a very real and limiting factor for many, the idea that "all this ambivalence would melt away with just the right package of policies to extend parental leave and make childcare affordable" seems ill-advised.

To reduce the current cultural ambivalence toward having children to a financial concern, they say, is to miss the opportunity to ask whether or not we are a society that affirms life. While Berg, Wiseman, and Kristian do not agree entirely on what it looks like to do so, they share an intention toward thoughtful engagement that takes financial concerns seriously and incorporates other nuances as well.

Wherever we fall on the spectrum of having children or not having them, may we engage the topic with wisdom and compassion, remembering that the God who loves us as his own is the author of life.