Women put off motherhood for 30 months

A TYPICAL mother now delays having babies for two-and-a-half years because of the forbidding costs of caring for a child, a survey has found.

Six out of ten women in their thirties and forties put off having a family because of the expense – and the average time they waited was 30 months.

The findings are contained in a poll of 4,000 people carried out by the job networking site LinkedIn.

It comes after the Office for National Statistics said women were putting off motherhood because of ‘increased female participation in higher education and the labour force, the increasing importance of a career, the rising costs of childbearing, labour market uncertainty and housing factors’.

The LinkedIn survey said the cost of childcare for working mothers was a key reason for the delay. But it also found that men were reluctant to devote their time to looking after children.

Parents said they spent between a quarter and a half of their income on childcare.

Four out of five families said they could not afford both children and a comfortable lifestyle as they would need a household income of £55,000. In London the figure was put at £73,000.

Darain Faraz of LinkedIn said: ‘Juggling work with childcare can be really difficult for parents, especially where the cost of childcare is so expensive.’