The idea that you need to save up a certain amount of money before having kids is so common it can feel almost like a moral law.

But it isn’t, and I said as much recently when a reader wrote in to my advice column asking if she’s too poor to have a baby . I argued that we don’t owe our kids a certain level of material wealth.

And then I got a question from another parent: my editor, Katie Courage . She pointed out that what also plagues her as a parent is time poverty . Maybe we don’t have to guarantee kids a certain amount of money, but what about a certain amount of time?

Here’s Katie’s question, and my response below.

Your latest column , responding to the reader who asked if she was too poor to bring another kid into the world, was refreshingly hope-inducing!…