In the agricultural age, women conceived younger and had many more children because children were economic assets as workers on the farm. In the postindustrial age, children are emotional assets but economic liabilities, costing both a middle-class husband and wife or a single parent over $10,000 a year.
Rachel Lehmann-Haupt, In Her Own Sweet Time: Egg Freezing and the New Frontiers of Family
children, economy, money, parents