When you do see someone taking care of someone else for extended periods of time, is it typically a friend, or a relative?
If you include spouses under “friends”, that might be quite common? I would say typically the spouse will contribute more working-hours in total, although children will be helpful in the last few years.
But then what is the relevance to the question of whether to have children or not? The rest of your comment seems to implicitly assume that the only way to get more relatives is to have children.
My comment focused on children because that’s the topic at hand; building a strong long-time bond with a significant other (or others, if you’re so inclined) can be another avenue (often less reliable) of attaining a dependable support group. The comment wasn’t meant to be exhaustive.
Personally I’d never put a spouse in the same category as “friends” in this context, but of course you may categorize whichever way you like. (For example, I’d agree that if you count children as friends, then friends would always be preferable, since (friends including children) is strictly more support than (just children). Such trivial labelling tennis wouldn’t change the underlying dynamics, of course.)
If you include spouses under “friends”, that might be quite common? I would say typically the spouse will contribute more working-hours in total, although children will be helpful in the last few years.
I most certainly don’t. Relative usually refers to “someone connected by blood, marriage, or adoption”.
But then what is the relevance to the question of whether to have children or not? The rest of your comment seems to implicitly assume that the only way to get more relatives is to have children.
My comment focused on children because that’s the topic at hand; building a strong long-time bond with a significant other (or others, if you’re so inclined) can be another avenue (often less reliable) of attaining a dependable support group. The comment wasn’t meant to be exhaustive.
Personally I’d never put a spouse in the same category as “friends” in this context, but of course you may categorize whichever way you like. (For example, I’d agree that if you count children as friends, then friends would always be preferable, since (friends including children) is strictly more support than (just children). Such trivial labelling tennis wouldn’t change the underlying dynamics, of course.)