I've been told this a number of times, but it's not as hard as people think: the Eldest of my kids is now 18 and we haven't ever owned a car since we were married. For my kids it meant greater independence because they went to school by public transport and because of this have a free pass for the city: any time they want to go anywhere they just go: no waiting for the Papa taxi. I appreciate that public transport is probably better organised than in the UK, but we don't live in the city of Stuttgart, and while the bus service isn't that bad it isn't brilliant, or very frequent.
To me it's much harder to deal with owning a very large, complex, and expensive vehicle that I'm responsible for maintaining to the mandated standards, to keep it safe less likely to kill people, for which I have to pay for tests, fuelling, insuring, and ultimately replacing, all of which costs an apparently large amount of money.
I also have to figure out storage, although for many car owners the solution to this seems to be to make someone else pay for that aspect.
I think a lot of the difficulty is connected to the expectations people have on others and their own lives. When I was in technical college I lived further away from the college than my peers. I also was the only one who cycled there. I was also the only one consistently on time. The four consistently late students were the four who came by car, and every time they were stressed, tired, and in winter vocally cold for the first hour. I'd arrive punctually, awake and always warm.
I'm not saying it's possible for everyone: we have the advantage of more traffic free cycle routes than you'd get in the UK, and I don't own a company that needs to deliver bulky items, for example, but it isn't as difficult as people sometimes assume.
I think that sometimes it is a matter of priorities and planning, and making a specific decision to work in a certain way.
. I like food and beer/wine so it’s A trade off and it’s my only exercise these days.
