More and more women in United States are going without kids. Kids are seen as requiring big sacrifice and being inconvenient, hence undesirable. According to US Census Bureau one in five U.S. women in their early 40s has no children.That’s double the level from 30 years ago and a record high. See report in NY Times, Guardian UK, Washington Post etc.
Some of the reason for this trend may be careerism, media portrayl of women, modern medical technology (extending biological clock) etc. Educated and well to do in socio-economic ladder tend to have lesser or no children at all. There are several competing alternatives to our time in our 20s and 30s, which are more lucrative and held in better esteem than making babies.
Women are getting married late and are waiting longer to have children, and more women than ever are choosing not to have children at all. In many cases, after building successful careers or achieving desirable wealth, when they think they are ready for baby, they are not able to concieve.
Child rearing has also become burdensome. Our culture is becoming anti-babies. There is less support from extended families, community, churches and culture. Cost of childcare, baby products and schooling is increasingly becoming unaffordable for many Americans.
This is not a women’s problem, but both men and women are responsible for this growing trend. This does not mean adult men and women are abstaining from sex altogether. Sexual appetite has not declined at all in America. In the increasingly promiscous culture of West where everyone has adequate information about conception early on and easy access to devices to prevent conception, people are saying YES to sex, but No to babies!
A societal shift in value toward anti-life message is obvious. Choosing not to have babies or aborting them when concieved and lack of social and governmental support for family is leading this nation toward self destruction. The demographical shift may force US to keep its immigration doors open in order to staff its economic structures and global clout.
Our individual choices do have a global and local term consquences!
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