On a recent flight back from a two-week trip to Sweden with my oldest son, a...

On a recent flight back from a two-week trip to Sweden with my oldest son, a conversation unfolded with a remarkable young woman, intelligent, socially skilled, charming, and attractive. The topic turned to one of the deepest questions facing young adults today: when is the right time to start a family?

She spoke candidly about the rising cost of living, stagnant wages, and how those pressures have made starting a family difficult for her and her boyfriend. She knows, instinctively and rationally, that staying home with her children, especially during their earliest years, would be better for everyone involved. But like many, they are caught in the grip of financial constraints, waiting for the “right time.”

The hard truth is: that time may never come. Not in our lifetime. Maybe in our children’s. But today, there is no perfect window. We have to choose to make a family anyway.

At 30, she was clearly thinking deeply about it. Her eyes carried the weight of that desire, for children, for meaning, for a home. It was not just talk. It was something real that she wanted.

Economic incentives will not single-handedly reverse the birth crisis. But they will help. Especially for women who long to be mothers in the fullest sense and simply cannot afford to.