For most parents, bundles of ‘joy’ are just that USA Today Apparently, children are the joy of their parents’ lives. Really, they are, says a Pew Research Center survey that asked why people had kids. And while 87 percent said “the joy of having children” was a key reason for having that first child, 47 percent said “it wasn’t a decision; it just happened.” Pew listed reasons and asked how important each was: 76 percent cited “joy” as a “very important” reason; 11 percent said it was “somewhat important.” “It just happened” was cited by 35 percent of parents as “very important”; 12 percent said “somewhat important.” Pew questioned 770 parents as part of a larger phone survey of 1,003 adults. Some responses suggest major changes in society: 79 percent of adults know an unmarried woman who had a child; 68 percent know an unmarried man who did. One-third know a woman who had fertility treatments. On the ideal number of kids, 46 percent of adults said two; 26 percent three; 9 percent four; 3 percent each said none, one or five-plus. A third of parents with three or more children said two kids is the ideal number — but don’t take that wrong, says Steven Martin of the Maryland Population Research Center at the University of Maryland, who wasn’t involved in the study. “It could be people are saying ‘I’m pretty worn-out. I love them, but I would have stopped at two.’ Or, they could mean, ‘Four was great for me, but for most families two is best,’” he says. Among parents who said they didn’t plan to have more children, “wanting to devote your time to the children you already have” was a reason cited by 76 percent, while “cost of raising a child” was mentioned by 72 percent. Of those citing finances, 48 percent said cost was a “very important” reason.
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