Actually, we're getting a pretty good idea of what the world will look like without Mommies, or without those who are willing to become Mommies, courtesy of this video from the BBC.
In Japan, not many people are having children. The culture does not easily lend itself towards allowing mothers to stay home to care for their children, and it is difficult to even find daycare. As a result, few people decide to become parents. According to the video, Japan's population, in a generation, will be the same as it was in 1955.
The birth rate is also falling in Europe. Some countries, such as France, are experiencing zero population growth, while others, particularly Germany, suffer from population decline.
In generations past, children were considered an asset, especially in rural communities where more children meant more hands to work the family farm. Today, however, is another story. Children mean thousands of dollars in prenatal and maternity care. Prospective parents have to spend a lot of money to buy the necessities, like a car seat, crib, diapers and wipes, etc.
Why the change? According to Lord Sacks, Britain's Cheif Rabbi and a member of the House of Lords, the problem is secularism. Specifically, most people aren't willing to make the sacrifices of "money, attention, time, and emotional energy" that children require. I don't know if I would blame this on secularism, per se. It is true that of my high school friends, only those who are religious have families, no matter what their religion, but I know quite a lot of religious people who don't have families, too.
What do you think?
Edit: factual error and spelling
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Well, considering how they are taking a lot of the air out of secularism rights by making marriage a function of the legislature (among other things) and banning talk of God in the capitol, I can't see how it is the fault of religion. It seems an issue related to both our health care system and unfortunately our mostly-free market that thinks it is okay to charge an arm and a leg for necessities for moms and babies. Unfortunately, I can't see a way around the supply and demand money-grubbers without the government imposing cost restrictions that would then make our market even less free and our country less of a democracy. It is a mess, that is true.
ReplyDeleteI asked Taeko why Japanese people don't tend to have many kids and she said, "Houses are small, housing is expensive, education is expensive, and mothers need to work outside of the house." I would add that a large number of twenty-somethings in Japan don't want get married these days, and are content to make and spend money.
ReplyDeleteI think you hit on the largest part of the problem when you described the costs of having a baby. Even so, the cost to have a baby is dwarfed by the costs of food, clothing and shelter throughout the child's life while living with the parents, and the costs of education, especially college. I guess we can also add the cost of braces, soccer practice and so on. Housing and education costs, I believe, are outpacing general inflation (aside from the recent recession).
Another contributing issue is that we do not allow children to have jobs, aside from the small ones like paper routes, until they are into their teens. On a farm a child can contribute toward the economic prosperity of the family while today they generally are only an economic drain.
And another thing:
ReplyDeleteEffective Birth Control.
Effective and cheap birth control is now available, which makes the choice to not have children a viable choice. It's hard to avoid having kids when there is no effective birth control.