Number of kids and Bay Area

If you’re married, how many kids have you had so far? Do you plan to have more?

If you plan to have kids, how many kids do you plan to have?

I lived in the bay area for a long time. Most of my friends and coworkers have one or two kids. Very few of them have three or more kids.

I had a "cultural shock" after I moved to Seattle. It’s not uncommon to meet young or middle-aged couples who have three, four, or even five kids.

I met a lot more stay-home mothers in Seattle. I knew very few stay-home mothers in the bay area. Some of them took one or two years off, but most of them eventually go back to work because they need duel income to pay for their mortgage. I saw a pattern:

• Parents want to buy a house in a good school district so that their kids can get good education. Both parents have to work really hard to afford the mortgage. In areas such as Cupertino or Palo Alto, you cannot really buy much with $1 million.
• Because both parents are working, they have to pay for child care expenses for two kids in addition to the expensive mortgage, which cause more pressure to parents to make more money.
• Parents work so hard that they don’t really have time to make love and care for more kids
• Parent decides that they can have only one or two kids.

If you don’t have kids yet, I think you should give some thoughts to this question. If you like kids and plan to have several kids, you should pick a place that is conducive for raising multiple kids. The bay area is probably not the right place for you.