Well one thing, depending on how good your kindergartens (here we call them daycare, kindergarten doesn’t start until age 5), it can be a really good experience. Our children both started at three months, when my wife went back to work, and the kids loved it, and seem to have gained a lot of good experience in relationships from being there. So, if you have good kindergarten, I would be totally comfortable with him going at age 1.
As to the incentives—well, do you think they will go away? If not, then if you wait another year before after she goes back to work, or even half a year, you’ll still be eligible for those benefits. Also, why would she only be part time if she went back to work after a year? Does that mean that she would have a lower benefit if she got pregnant after going back to work?
I’ve found that it’s difficult to predict the future financially. These things are important, and we want to know, but with times like ours, who knows what will happen? You might lose your job. Then what? I know you also have generous unemployment benefits, and you also have a fairly good system for paying for health care, so you have a good cushion in situations like that, but they don’t last forever, do they?
I guess I wouldn’t have a child because of the huge financial incentives. I know population is decreasing throughout Europe, and a lot of nations have such incentives, but you don’t have to do what the government wants you to do, even if it is patriotic. Caution suggests not taking on another child at a time like this, and it is better for the children if there is more space. But that’s just my opinion. Whatever you do, and whenever you have the child, it sounds like you’ll be a very loving father, and the love for children is what counts the most. If you have that, you can endure a lot of trouble elsewhere.