Has anyone noticed how in contemporary culture

[PetraG]

From the culture around me, and from my “secular media” exposure, children are treated as princes and princesses. Parents are expected to not only have children but to spoil them, to into debt in order to provide the best.

This is why you can’t have a lot of them…that is, because it is expected you have to put a lot of resources into each one in order to be a good parent.

Beware the rose tinted spectacles. Let’s not forget the concept of children/childhood has changed dramatically over the last couple of hundred years. It wasn’t until the Victorian era that children were really seen as, well, children (mainly thanks to the likes of Charles Dickens and others who celebrated the notion of an innocent childhood). Both World Wars made people re-evaluate ideas of children and childhood. Couple that with advances in medicine, education and economy - things are bound to change.

Yes. The invention of antibiotics also allowed people to believe that they could count on every child getting to adulthood. The mortality rate before the age of five was very high before that. According to the CDC, “In 1900, 30 percent of all deaths in the United States occurred in children less than 5 years of age compared to just 1.4 percent in 1999. Infant mortality dropped from approximately 100 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1915 (the first year for which data to calculate an infant mortality rate were available) to 29.2 deaths per 1,000 births in 1950 and 7.1 per 1,000 in 1999…Instead of being a sad but common family experience, death in childhood now stands out as a particular tragedy, at least in developed nations such as the United States.” (PATTERNS OF CHILDHOOD DEATH IN AMERICA - When Children Die - NCBI Bookshelf)

It actually seems to me that there is a great deal of societal pressure to want/have children, especially if you’re female. I am single and celibate (with no plans to or even the desire to marry) and one of my friends said that I should still have children - and could always adopt if I remained unmarried! The idea that if a woman isn’t called to marriage she probably isn’t called to have children doesn’t even seem to register…

The world has never lacked for those of us willing to share our opinions without solicitation, lol.

 

[Angel_Gabriel]

and one of my friends said that I should still have children - and could always adopt if I remained unmarried!

I’ve never understood why people think single parenthood is a good thing…It’s not something I would ever want although I do get that there are instances where it must happen (death, abuse etc). I’ve seen the stress that single parents go through…no way would I want that!

 

[Angel_Gabriel]

This is why you can’t have a lot of them…that is, because it is expected you have to put a lot of resources into each one in order to be a good parent.

so true…we just got done with the hell that is known as “school sports”…I dont’ want to go through that again…I’ve finally found other parents who agree with me that they wouldn’t let their kids do sports in school b/c of the ridiculous amount of $$$ and commitment (and stress) that the family goes through.)

 

[PetraG]

so true…we just got done with the hell that is known as “school sports”…I dont’ want to go through that again…I’ve finally found other parents who agree with me that they wouldn’t let their kids do sports in school b/c of the ridiculous amount of $$$ and commitment (and stress) that the family goes through.)

The outrageous thing is that it is the parents driving the ridiculous demands of youth sports. This is a self-inflicted problem. Parents really need to draw the line.

 

[Aquinas11]

Having children, unless it’s very few and at a very particular age, is viewed as a burden, and even sometimes as really disgusting/low class or a sign of poor upbringing?

I mean, I know children are a lot of work, but I find it disturbing how children are viewed in our culture.

Several reasons

(1) Children are an impediment to vanity and pride - when you have a child, you have to put yourself second and the child first. In today’s culture of selfies, facelifts, and botox injections, the only commandment is “thou shalt always place thyself first”

(2) Children are an impediment to hedonism and sex - you can’t have endless sex when a child is knocking on the door or needs their diaper changed. And that’s a no-no in a culture that is so sex-obsessed that 3 of the top 8 websites are porn.

(3) Children are an impediment to radical feminism. The top 1% figured out a way to increase their profits - cut worker wages. How do you cut worker wages? Double the number of workers (supply and demand). How do you double the number of workers? Convince women they’re not “equal” to men unless they are working outside the home. Children is an obvious impediment to that plan of the top 1%.

Notice that Catholic Church is also hated for same reasons (1), (2), (3) above.

 

[po18guy]

We used to consider children as blessings. Below is an icon that became the motto of Boy’s Town, founded by Irish Priest Fr. Edward. J. Flanagan. How times and culture have changed…

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)

 

[blackforest]

Honestly though, what bothers me more is that the concept of “it takes a village to raise a child” is gone.

Yes! This!

My children are getting older. But when they were tots and preschoolers, it was soooooo hard to take them around town without getting judged for something - they’re too loud, too curious and want to touch things, too active . . . Stay-at-home moms are isolated when in the home yet unwelcome when they finally venture out of it.

I’m reading the Ramona Quimby books to my kindergartener. I think the 1950s gets overly idealized, but one thing they did right was that sense of community. One neighbor would just call up another and ask if they could drop off their kid for a couple of hours while they ran some errands. These days, that’s unthinkable even in my own friendly community.

 

[Lifeisbeautiful3]

And, would almost certainly be considered a burden to drop off two, three, four or more children!! Most of my single or working parent friends have a nanny or after school babysitter. Asking to drop all my children at their house merely moves the responsibility from my nanny or sitter to theirs.

 

[vsedriver]

Having children, unless it’s very few and at a very particular age, is viewed as a burden, and even sometimes as really disgusting/low class or a sign of poor upbringing?

this is the result of radical feminism. Being a wife and a mother are not good as far as they are concerned. Women should be like men and put a career ahead of motherhood. Based on the false premise that men put their career ahead of their families.

Society has gone along with the concept and reinforces it with images of ‘super’ mom who can have a rewarding career and be a soccer mom. Sure there are some women who can pull that off. I personally don’t know any and many successful career women have hired help with the kids.

 

[edwest211]

Let’s not forget the marketing push with The Pill, which was accelerated by radical feminism. TIME magazine, 1967.

Contraception: Freedom from Fear | TIME

Contraception. Freedom from Fear. Fear of what? That bundle of joy, that gift from God? Babies. It took years for the contraceptive mentality to spread but the efforts of the radical feminists brought that marketing push to the present.

The National Organization for Women has been pushing contraception and abortion for a long time.