R
RPRPsych
Guest
, especially on the extended family thing. They’re the main reason larger families still exist (though they’re on the decline, for other reasons) in our part of the world. 
Baby Bust: 2015 had lowest U.S. fertility rate ever, down 600,000 births
- Status
, especially on the extended family thing. They’re the main reason larger families still exist (though they’re on the decline, for other reasons) in our part of the world.
S
Sarcelle
Guest
I work with a lot of Indians who have moved all the way from India to the US, moving away from extended family and support. Why? Because of jobs. As the world economy gets increasingly globalized, there will be more people moving around from continent to continent leading to a more transient lifestyle. This is not compatible with putting down roots and raising a family.
D
Darryl1958
Guest
Just a year ago, the US fertility rate was higher.
I think that there is more going on than lack of grammas.
I think that there is more going on than lack of grammas.
A
anon67074017
Guest
I wonder if same-sex marriage had anything to do with this.
R
RPRPsych
Guest
Tell me about it! Even when we don’t move overseas, there’s a lot of intra-country mobility in search of jobs. People gravitate to metropolitan cities, and this often leaves them cut off from their families. Often, they enter into relationships and marry someone “whom the family wouldn’t have approved of” (this happened to at least two of my friends during my “salad days”, though not to me personally), leaving them further isolated. And by the time everything is sorted out, parenting is either delayed (with its attendant biological complications) or deferred.
To put this in perspective: my grandmother had my mother when she was 19. My mother had me (the first child) when she was 28. I was single until I was 33, mainly because I took time to settle into a “permanent” job.
H
HerCrazierHalf
Guest
Maybe that’s the bigger trend. A lot of us are single or not in long term relationships until later in life. I myself married at 32 (I’m 34 now), and I can’t really see being ready for children any time before 31. Even today is a gray area despite a good job and house.To put this in perspective: my grandmother had my mother when she was 19. My mother had me (the first child) when she was 28. I was single until I was 33, mainly because I took time to settle into a “permanent” job.
D
Darryl1958
Guest
It is part of the dysfunction. Redefining marriage away from the procreative family sends the clear message that society no longer considers procreative activity as particularly relevant to what needs to be promoted and protected and preserved in society.
It is no longer about a man taking responsibility for the next generation, but it is all about love. Love in this context means following ones own sexual desires, wherever they may lead you. There is no special status or regard given to the man who opts to limit himself to doing what was once considered the socially responsible thing, and hunkering down and supporting a family. There is no more or less prestige in that than in any other sexual course of action he chooses, or actually even of less prestige if such a choice is deemed not remaining true to himself.
R
Ridgerunner
Guest
Birth rates dropped a lot during the Depression, picked up again after it, then started trending down again. We didn’t reach a Depression-era low again until the mid 1960s.
One of the problems we have in increasing measure is the fact that everybody in this country is supporting children and elderly parents, just not their own children and elderly parents. When 40+% of people are receiving some kind of government benefits, that’s a load on the remaining 60%, some of whom aren’t doing all that well but still pay significant taxes.
Seems strange that people don’t realize there is a cost to providing for children and the elderly when they’re not your own, and often that’s part of the reason people do not have their own children, or few, and don’t take responsibility for their own parents.
infoplease.com/ipa/A0005067.html
S
Sarcelle
Guest
In my own extended family, the generation before me married early and had lots of kids, an average of six kids per couple. My generation? Most of us aren’t married, those of us who managed to get married get divorced. The amount of kids born to my generation in the family you can count on the fingers of one hand. The difference between generations is like night and day.
D
Darryl1958
Guest
I remember going to school with a man from Central America quite a few years back, and he had five children. He couldn’t understand Canadian culture, and openly wondered who would take care of all the childless people when they got old?
I guess it never really occurred to him that the Canadian government has taken on that role.
There is a lot of work and sacrifice involved in having kids. Many Canadians understand this well enough, and not having kids is the easiest route, because there is always social security to take care of us when we get old.
Those kinds of things explain the baby bust in general, but now why the bust in America is the lowest ever.
I guess it never really occurred to him that the Canadian government has taken on that role.
There is a lot of work and sacrifice involved in having kids. Many Canadians understand this well enough, and not having kids is the easiest route, because there is always social security to take care of us when we get old.
Those kinds of things explain the baby bust in general, but now why the bust in America is the lowest ever.
A
ArielRussu
Guest
There are so many factors playing into the gap in births; economical, financial, later marriages (then again in todays age, marriage is no longer considered needed before having children sadly), people waiting till they have a stable job and etc… Though personally, at least in my opinion, people should make sure they have enough to support a child, I know this varies and circumstances change, but its very irresponsible to have children when you can’t even afford to care for yourself, as well as your spouse. Though, they way the world is heading right now, especially with the downhill fall of American society, its more wise NOT to procreate and bring more children into the world. At least they way I see it,
D
Darryl1958
Guest
Has there ever been a time when it was a good time to have children?
There has never been an age where there has not been a lot of crazy stuff happening.
And if young people today opt out of raising up the next generation, who will?
ISIS, and their slave girls?
There has never been an age where there has not been a lot of crazy stuff happening.
And if young people today opt out of raising up the next generation, who will?
ISIS, and their slave girls?
L
lmachine
Guest
So the reason to have children is to have a caretaker for your later years?
A
ArielRussu
Guest
Personally, I believe that Isis should be nuked, and hopefully one day they will be wiped off the face of the earth, they are evil and and evil needs to be dealt with accordingly, via extermination.
Anyway, the answer is yes and no. First off, a hundred years ago there were no real effective ways to regulate births like there are now. A hundred years ago, the rhythm method and pulling out were the only methods to regulate births, and what mentally sane couple in there 20’s/30’s/ even 40s and older would want to give up relations until menopause? And permanent abstinence has marital dysfunction written all over it. And I find it funny how people can preach how thats what the “Church” says is acceptable if a couple doesn’t want anymore kids and does not want to take any risks with marital relations until they are in that predicament themselves. Then they realize they finally need to practice what they preach and find it very difficult to do so.
Every age has its pros and its cons. In ancient times humans were fed to lions, deformed babies were thrown too the wolves, women were property (still are in certain countries even today), war etc… In the middle ages, there was poor hygiene (throwing human waste out windows into the streets below, people only were fully bathed when they were born and when they died), the bubonic plague, war, etc… In the past 100 years alone there was WW1, WW2, the Holocaust, Stalin, Hitler, Dar Fur, Korean War, Vietnam War, World Trade Center, 9/11…
It all depends where a person is living at a particular period in time and there beliefs and there willingness to bring a child into a cold, cruel, unforgiving world. I for one am not comfortable bringing more people into the world we are in now, back when my grandparents were young America was in a time of peace, jobs were not scarce like they are today, people as a whole were more responsible. In the world today, America is heading for a crash, we are trillions of dollars in dept, giving money away to countries like Egypt and Saudi Arabia who HATE us and give FREE money to illegal immigrants and there children while IGNORING the citizens BORN in America who by right should take precedence OVER an illegal immigrant. Plus, the general public is filled with entitled idiots that don’t want to work, they want everything for free, have zero respect for the American flag or there country!, have no morals, are obsessed with the “political correctness” bull, parents don’t parent anymore and honestly the generation of children being raised scares me and should scare you! They have no concept of right and wrong, don’t value hard work, have no respect for elders, etc… which all goes back to the fact that parents do not parent anymore, if a parent so much raises there voice or hand to a misbehaving child CPS gets called, plus our government shelters them with all the (everyone gets a trophy so no “feelings” are hurt, even 8th place!, kids can’t really get a job until age 18, college “safe - spaces”) so these kids graduate with this mind set they everyone must hail down to them, when in reality that is not how REAL life works. Not to mention there is a rise in school shootings.
Yes, you can say we could bring our children up too do better, but my gut tells me it is better to not have children in a country that is so messed up right now, especially when there are options to regulate births that did not exist in the past. Maybe, I would feel different if the American public woke-up and had a flame lit under there backside and began working towards a better future. I don’t know where you live but there are A LOT of people in a city by me who are on welfare, are unemployed, don’t want to even look for a job and expect OUR government and tax payer dollars to support them and the litter they produce, which the children they produce see what there parents are like and only add to the cycle when they grow-up!
J
JimG
Guest
“Falling fertility rates typically affect the economy afIter a lag of 15 years, as babies grow into working-age adults. But oddly, anti-immigrant sentiment has erupted precisely as the economic fallout of the birthrate implosion has become clearly visible.”
–WSJ: How the Birth Dearth Saps Economic Growth
It seems to me that developed nations are not only embracing medical suicide, they are embracing national suicide through attrition.
–WSJ: How the Birth Dearth Saps Economic Growth
It seems to me that developed nations are not only embracing medical suicide, they are embracing national suicide through attrition.
D
Darryl1958
Guest
A
ArielRussu
Guest
R
RPRPsych
Guest
H
HerCrazierHalf
Guest
Well, for those who are not having children outside of marriage, it does seem most of us just don’t get married or stayed married long enough to have children. I’m convinced that it is harder for our generation to get along with the opposite sex.
Of your peers, are are even half of them still with the same person for 5+ years regardless of marriage status? How many of both sexes complain about the opposite sex constantly?
P
pensmama87
Guest
Good point.
I remember being surprised how many school friends I had growing up whose parents were divorced. It was treated as “no big deal, just one of those things,” but I think we’re seeing now that’s not the case. Divorce is very hard on kids. Why should people get married or stick it out in a relationship if it’s just going to end badly?
It’s funny because we’re taught that it’s no big deal to make ourselves very physically vulnerable but to keep our emotions very tightly locked down. That does not a happy marriage make.
- Status