Reality for a lot of people: economic reasons. Even in the bay area.<p>You simply can't raise children in anything smaller than a 3 bedroom apartment or house. Furthermore, because of groceries and driving around, they effectively require a car. On top of that, at least one of the parents need to sacrifice most time between, say, 5pm and 8pm every day. More than just that before they go to school (and this will put strain on the relationship, for obvious reasons). I mean, perhaps if you limit yourself to just one you might make it work with a 2 bedroom place, but ...<p>So you need a lot more stuff, and you must work less ...<p>There's massive rewards too, of course, but ... you have a lot of people that really want children, but realize it would destroy them. If you're wondering why people don't have children, imho, mostly that question is answered if they invite you to dinner.