If kids is going to set you back by a few hundreds/thousands in your retirement, what are some driving force to have kids?

Family?

Hello, raising a kid can be expensive for sure. especially in today's environment where rising cost of living can be stressful. but yeah they say that kids can bring you what money cant buy -- i would say its a whole different experience that makes life - life. there are also subsidies even for childcare, you can read up on what are the subsidies available to see if it helps you better.

Family time

It's something money can't buy (literally), not the expenses but you can't simply buy an offspring off the streets (unless you adopt one)