I read this headline, it seems reasonable. Do you think this good news? Bad news? Neutral?
I believe that will be true or maybe 60%.
My grandchildren do not want children. Not a maternal bone in a body. And after spending all that time with them, knowing their personalities and root wants... I cannot see it. In fact, as teens they don't even want a boy to come near them. They are busy. Have things to do. Not even interested.
The Z's are a different breed. Feral. A little ruthless. A whole different kind of kid. The Millennials still wanted a kid or two, but these kids coming up see the world differently. And their Millennial parents told them to back off having kids. They see how hard it is to feed them, house them and clothe them. So... I bet that is correct and maybe even higher.
Good news? Well, they say it isn't but there are 8.2 billion people on the planet. I'd say there is enough. Other countries will probably not have this same statistic.
I'm trying my best not to!
In seriousness, soup is right. It's sad to thing of people being alone and vulnerable, but there are enough people on the planet, and I think we'll find a way not to be truly alone.
My son wants a family so bad. It will be criminal, if he's deprived.
But I do this this stat is correct... but I also think (and this is sheer speculation), that babies will come to be a status symbol, eventually.
Based on the idea, very few will be able to have them.
I am the youngest of 4 and none of us have children. I believe it’s the dissolution of family.
We did not have a solid core family. Death, alcoholism, suicide and neglect.
@bar-in-the-sky I think this predates you, but I used to be part of an old school, "Woman's Club". We met for lunch, once a month, and had a speaker. The other ladies were all older that me.. and had on average, 9 or 10 children.
Everyone has at least 7 kids, several had 10, some 11 or 12 and one of them had 13.
My grandfather was one of 9 kids. My parents had 5.
I and one of my sisters has 2. My brother and other sister had none.
I'm just hoping women in the future, will have the option. I speak with a lot of women who want children but struggle with infertility. It's extremely distressing to them and degrades their lives.
@elsa my grandmother was one of 11 children. They used to hold annual family reunions just so that everybody would know each other. I have a cousin who accidentally dated a distant cousin briefly because they didn’t know! By the time all my cousins my age were born, the family was no longer together. And then my immediate family, well I touched on that.
I still think that not having a healthy core family is at least part of it or a section in the pie chart. I don’t want to have kids, because there’s no family. I’d be making a family from scratch with no grandparents, cousins, aunts uncles…etc. it seems unfair.
Growing up, a single child family seemed rare. There are three of us kds, my husband is one of four but to hear a family with many more children was common. I was born in the middle 60’s, first year Gen X.
I never had a yearning to be a mother. I have no real reason why, only speculations in the way I viewed motherhood through my mother and the way it was in media, entertainment, my own education, demoted behind having a career (early 80’).
I sometimes have regrets but I always know that I can’t go back. My sister didn’t have children either, but my brother has two boys.
That stat is a little sad because I know that people will miss out on an experience I know is incredible simply by second hand knowledge, by being a grandparent without being a parent, by knowing that humans are far more resilient than some portray, even when they don’t have all the things that people want to give for a utopian childhood.
But I also think there will be a swing in the other direction, maybe with the younger Z and Alpha (is that what they’re calling it?). My granddaughter, born in 2015, was born to be a mother in some capacity. And possibly the youngest one.
Could it also be influences by the family and parents? Even subtle ones? I know that was part of the reason for me. Meaning, children seem to be a burden or children are a joy; a family is close and family is a priority or laissez-faire?
How about the astrology on this? Definitely generational influences but also individual.