Even if allowed to have 3 children, I wouldn't dare because I have to save money to buy a house.

Couples and individuals have the right to freely decide when to have children, the number of children and the spacing between births; this is one of the contents of the draft amendment to the Population Ordinance that the Ministry of Health is drafting, which was recently reported by the press. Previously, the 2003 Population Ordinance, revised in 2008, encouraged each couple to have only one or two children.

Upon hearing this news, both sets of parents asked my husband and I if we planned to have more children, because we both loved children. Hearing our refusal, my grandmother gently scolded us: "What a pity, in the past, my parents wanted to have many children but were afraid of being disciplined and losing the competition, so they only had two children; now you two are lazy to have children."

Actually, it is not that my husband and I are lazy to have children or to take care of small children, but we do not dare. Living in big cities like Hanoi or Ho Chi Minh City today, having several children is not simply a matter of personal wishes or government policies, but a challenging economic problem. For my family, where would we have the money to dare to have a third child when the cost of raising children is so expensive, and the dream of settling down is still in the early stages of realization.

3 years ago, my wife and I decided to buy an apartment in Ha Dong district, Hanoi. Now, every month, we have to pay the principal and interest of nearly 20 million VND. Meanwhile, our income from government agencies, plus the money from part-time jobs and hard work selling online is more than 40 million VND. Although we really want to have another baby, we understand that our financial situation does not allow it.

A 60m² apartment in the suburbs of Hanoi currently costs from 2 to 3 billion VND, equivalent to 20 to 30 years of salary of an average worker (according to the General Statistics Office, the average income per capita in 2024 will reach 64.8 million VND/year).

My husband and I’s current income is much higher than that, but that’s only recently. We were in our early 30s when we had saved enough to make the first down payment on our apartment. In the years before that, most of the little money we earned was just enough to give birth to and raise two young children.

Now with an income 3-4 times the average, we have to spend more than half on basic expenses, because raising 2 children of preschool and primary school age in Hanoi is extremely expensive. In addition to the cost of buying clean and nutritious food, the costs related to education, the cost of health care is also very high because young children often get sick.

If we had another child, our monthly mortgage payments would be cut in half or even more, as my wife’s income would definitely decrease. With just two children, our mortgage repayment journey would stretch into middle age.

Some of our friends, younger siblings or young colleagues do not even dare to have a second child because of their financial capacity.

However, recently, the information that public school students from kindergarten to high school will be exempted from tuition fees from the beginning of the 2025-2026 school year has excited many couples, and the idea of ​​having more children than originally planned has also "rumbled" to appear. Although tuition fees only account for a part of the educational costs that parents have to pay, saving this amount is still very meaningful for low- or middle-income families, who need to calculate carefully in their spending.

My cousin, who had already decided to have only one child, also seemed to change her mind:"In a few years, if my income is better, I will consider having a second child."

Many couples think that they will have more children when they get rich. This "open plan" shows that the provision that "couples and individuals have the right to freely decide the number of children" in the draft revised Population Ordinance is a real progress in population policy.

With that right, people can plan their births, plan their family size in accordance with their wishes and abilities, and flexibly change when conditions or desires change. That contributes to improving the quality of life and increasing the level of satisfaction with life. It can be said that this change in the Population Ordinance is an adjustment to the new situation, increasing the ability to achieve happiness for each family and individual.