The birth rate in the U.S. is at its lowest in history. Between 2007 and 2011, the fertility rate declined nine percent. A 2010 Pew Research report says one in five American women end their childbearing years without ever having children.
Societal pressure has certainly delayed this situation. We have some strange ideas for what everyone else should be doing. We recognize that certain people aren’t cut out to own guns, perform shift work, live in the city or deliver public speeches. But we assume that EVERYONE can rise to the occasion of wanting and nurturing rugrats.
The expense of rearing a child is only one of myriad legitimate reasons for having second thoughts about parenthood, but it is a potent one.
One estimate is that it will take $234,900 to raise a child born in 2011. Or, more likely, $234,900 plus 79 cents, if you plan on buying him or her ownership of the Boston Globe as a graduation gift.
Demographers and economists keep trying to intrude upon this very personal decision by wringing their collective hands about the impact of reduced fertility on schools, day care, manufacturing, Social Security, etc. I do worry about the MEDICAL consequences of the lowered birth rate. Teens are liable to wind up with their eyes permanently rolled back in their heads and a smirk frozen on their faces when exasperated parents give them the old “Just wait until you have kids of your own…” speech.
The greatest impact will be on all those boastful Christmas letters you get. Without little violin virtuosos and star quarterbacks running around, adults will have to pad the letters. (“Brad can’t possibly spend all his bonus, he’s the unofficial MVP of the polo team and today he went ‘boom boom’ in the executive washroom like a big boy!”)
I’m finding fulfillment as a parent, but the day is coming when people can unashamedly find fulfillment in other ways.
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Sigh.
DANNY TYREE’s weekly column is distributed by Cagle Cartoons Inc.
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