Having more kids saves one child from all responsibilities

We made the decision based on how older generations of our families did it.

My grandmother is 95 years old this year and has five children. When she got sick, my father, who is 70 years old, received help from his younger brothers to take turns taking care of her. I myself have a younger brother, who lives with my parents and is their primary caregiver, while I help financially. When my parents get sick, my brother and I take turns caring for them at the hospital.

My husband and I did not want our child to have to shoulder the burden of caring for us alone later in life.

Having two or more children has several benefits.

Firstly, it helps to ensure population growth for the country.

Next, a child with brothers and sisters will have a stronger sense of family bonds.

Finally, the responsibilities of caring for elderly parents – and the family as a whole – in the future will be shared among the children while everyone ages. This will thus make it less difficult than if only one child had to do it all alone.

Of course, from an economic perspective, raising two children will certainly be much more difficult than having just one child. But when seeing my children having fun together, I still see that my decision was the right one.

*The opinion was shared by a reader named Anhtp following a VnExpress story about the burden of an only child. Being an only child means having to shoulder the entire financial burden and responsibility of taking care of one’s parents. That pressure causes many people to sacrifice work and personal life to fulfill their responsibilities as children.