"How many kids do you want to have?"
Whether you were asked this question directly or whether you have pondered it on your own, the number of kids you'd like to have (or not have) someday has inevitably crossed everybody's mind. At least it has for me. However, as people get to that stage of their life a myriad of factors come into play, affecting the decision of a couple to start a family or add to it, and suddenly the dreams/plans you made when you were younger are outweighed by much more real and pressing circumstances.
What are those circumstances and why do they have such a big impact on people deciding whether or not to have kids? Is talking about something like this even that important? I realize there are many people out there who have had their minds made up for a while and simply don't plan on having children at all. In addition to discussing some of the factors that affect people and their decision to bring children into this world, I'd also like to focus on the greater impact that the answer to that question "How many kids do you want to have?" has on our future.
"Most of the world is transitioning into natural population decline." -Professor Christopher Murray
In the late 1940s postwar America was booming...with babies. You may have heard of the "baby boom" before. To be brief, people were feeling good after the war, soldiers were looking forward to settling down with their sweethearts and the economic rise gave people hope of being able to raise a large family comfortably. Which they were actually able to do.
Suburban living began to boom as well. Developers started using mass production techniques to build modest homes on the outskirts of towns. These houses were cheaper to live in than some apartments in the city, so the growing families flocked to them. To give you an idea of just how fast and big these families were growing, the number of babies born in the United States in 1946 was 20 percent higher than in 1945. And it kept going up. More than 4 million babies were born every year from 1954 until 1964.
The thing I find most interesting about it, though, is that it actually wasn't that big of a boom. The average person today might guess that women back then were having 6 or 7 kids each, which is why they called it the "baby boom" and why it was such a big deal. However, the fertility rate - meaning the number of kids a woman would have during her lifetime - peaked in 1960 at 3.58. Does 3, maybe 4, kids sound like a ginormous "old-fashioned" family to you?
Shortly after the baby boom people began making predictions, fearing that the sudden and exponential rise in population would burn out the earth's resources. The population did go up, but their "doomsday" predictions did not come to fruition. So why does it still seem like we are living in fear of over-populating the earth? Environmental concerns are not the only thing to sway people on this topic. Finances, culture, past experiences, and a rise in women going to school and working all play a part in the decreasing fertility rate that countries all over the world are experiencing.
Is that such a bad thing? Some say yes. According to Derek Beres, a writer at BigThink, there will be many financial and social consequences that nations will soon need to plan for, including how to manage the decrease in people who are of working age.
Despite population struggles, the decision to have kids is very personal and special. Many argue that they don't want to bring kids into the messed up and frightening world that we live in. But I think it's worth considering whether or not we would like our future to be filled with a generation of strong, bright-minded people instilled with an appreciation towards growing their posterity. In the end it's each person's own choice. Don't let the world's opinions hamper your desires and dreams.
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