Yes, kids are an expense when they are under our care, hard to disagree with that. Whether they are 'worth it' or not in other ways, I agree that is an entirely separate, and personal issue.
However, there is another possible financial matter - our old age. I'm seeing this now, as DW and I and our siblings are caring for our parents. Mostly, it's just simple stuff, but this stuff isn't so simple w/o help when you are legally blind and have trouble reading bills and other notices, and have limited mobility. Just having someone do the grocery shopping, sort out the old food in the fridge, and look after little things like buttons getting inadvertently pushed on the phone or TV and rendering them useless, or other little maintenance things. Even in a retirement community, many of these things are your responsibility. You can hire people to do some of this, but where do you turn to have a check written, or to read some docs that require a decision and action? Who will keep the wolves & sharks away? Who can you truest (yes, I know you can't always trust your offspring either, but at least you know them and may be able to figure that out).
Now we certainly didn't have kids with the thought that these were a long term investment in old-age services for us. But now I'm seeing the reality up close and personal, and having a next generation to help out is hard to put a price on. What is easy for us is difficult/impossible for them in many cases. It's why the older family structures had multi-generations under one roof. Things have changed, and elders can get on easier than in the past in some ways, but things have changed, and life is more complicated in many ways than in the past.
-ERD50