Blessings or Liabilities

Hello everyone! For this week’s post I would like to discuss the decreasing rates of marriage and family growth. This week we took a deep dive into the rates of which families are or are not growing. America is currently not reaching the replacement birth rate. The replacement birth rate is how many children a country needs to have per year to replace its population. On average each American woman were having 2.3 children, nowadays that number has decreased and is now at 1.8 children per woman. This is a surprisingly low rate. Obviously, the American population is in no immediate danger. However, if this trend continues through the decades, we could be looking a serious problem.

We discussed possible reasons why people are choosing to not have as many children and came up with a variety of possible reasons. One of them is that there are a significant amount of people marrying later in life. The later a couple decides to have children, the rates of infertility get higher. So, in consequence, less children are born. As well, we looked at the country’s changing values.

Do you find family important? Are you looking forward to starting a family one day? To many people the answer to these questions could be no. This might be because of a rough family background. I myself came from a less than optimal family and the thought of finding ‘the one’ and starting a family is extremely scary. It is natural to not want to repeat the mistakes of your family. A lot of times this will keep people even trying to seek a partner and kids. As well, I recognize that there may be many people who no longer believe in the traditional family. These are all incredibly valid and understandable thoughts.

So let us dive in. Why would someone want to start a family and why wouldn’t they? I know the way I grew up; family was supposed to be a huge part of your daily life. Family was to mean everything, it was something eternal and bonding. Family was supposed to be your backbone, your best friends, and your protectors. Again, like I said earlier, this was not always the case for my family. With that said, this is how family was taught to me. It is the main reason I have a desire to step past my fears and have a family. We also discussed that in old times people chose to have lots of children so that they could help around the house or farm. Thankfully, we don’t see that much anymore. As well, many people feel it’s their calling in life to raise children, protect them, strengthen them, and encourage them in their life goals. For some cultures across the globe people have children so they can pass on the family name. Point proven, there are lots of reasons people want to have children. There are also a lot of people steadily choosing not have children.

I know for myself, that there’s this big worry about taking care of them. Children require a lot of attention and patience as well as the funds to match. A growing concern for many people is the cost of living these days. It can be hard enough to take care of ourselves but when you think of adding other people to that? Terrifying. Alright enough chit chat. Here’s the big question: are families and children a liability or a blessing? I want to hear your thoughts.

For myself I believe the prospect of having children and a husband to be a future blessing that I look forward to. I would find the joy of taking care of someone else extremely rewarding. I also understand that might not be everyone’s view. To me, families are blessings. If they aren’t to you, I’d like to know how do you view “family” and children, are they a liability? If you are wanting to start a family, why?