(OK, I subscribed, but please put me on your list of potential investors when you start your biotech)
FT says that In 1965, mothers of young children in developed countries spent an average of just over an hour a day doing activities with their kids..By 2018 that number had risen to three hours.
When kids were more likely to have siblings, it was likely that they would spend more time interacting with each other (even given occasional squabbles)...and when kids were allowed to be more free-range, they could interact with neighborhood children.
FT also says that the more worried a prospective young mother is, the fewer children she intends to have...which of course makes sense. But why is anxiety over Climate Change having that effect when the 1950s thru 1991 did not?
I am at the beginning of the grandparent age and while I have no grandkids yet...I do have a lot of grand nieces and nephews. I am pretty involved in the lives of those who live near me and try to help with some driving, babysitting, etc.
All I can say is that being a parent today is really tough, including the expectations, the Facebook groups, mindful/gentle parenting (don't get me started on gentle parenting), etc. I get exhausted just watching it. Not sure how this impacts the argument other than to say that culture, in the form of what seems to me to be unrealistic expectations of parents, must impact family size. Maybe if we could influence culture to be a little bit more pragmatic and less judgmental (or Facebook optimized) for parents we could reduce the stresses and make the whole process a little more rewarding.
First, family friendly policies are good because they help develop human capital, a society's children. But I agree all evidence points to its impotence (pun?) in increasing birth rates.
Second, I think you were too hard on Lyz Lenz's book. She's arguing for equality of the burden for taking care of a household. I read her book and I didn't take it as a condemnation of all marriages but rather a critique of the institution as it exists on average today with women doing far more of the work than men. In her book she makes a pretty good case that her marriage was a stifling inequitable burden.
Finally, this is coming at time when in America, 1) a big source of socioeconomic divide is college grad or not and 2) women are rapidly outpacing men in their rates of college graduation. There are now more female graduates overall and with each younger age group the gap is wider.
Perhaps IVF and improving the procedure and the technology and lowering the cost for freezing eggs is one answer.
(OK, I subscribed, but please put me on your list of potential investors when you start your biotech)
FT says that In 1965, mothers of young children in developed countries spent an average of just over an hour a day doing activities with their kids..By 2018 that number had risen to three hours.
When kids were more likely to have siblings, it was likely that they would spend more time interacting with each other (even given occasional squabbles)...and when kids were allowed to be more free-range, they could interact with neighborhood children.
FT also says that the more worried a prospective young mother is, the fewer children she intends to have...which of course makes sense. But why is anxiety over Climate Change having that effect when the 1950s thru 1991 did not?
I am at the beginning of the grandparent age and while I have no grandkids yet...I do have a lot of grand nieces and nephews. I am pretty involved in the lives of those who live near me and try to help with some driving, babysitting, etc.
All I can say is that being a parent today is really tough, including the expectations, the Facebook groups, mindful/gentle parenting (don't get me started on gentle parenting), etc. I get exhausted just watching it. Not sure how this impacts the argument other than to say that culture, in the form of what seems to me to be unrealistic expectations of parents, must impact family size. Maybe if we could influence culture to be a little bit more pragmatic and less judgmental (or Facebook optimized) for parents we could reduce the stresses and make the whole process a little more rewarding.
Ruxandra,
A few observations.
First, family friendly policies are good because they help develop human capital, a society's children. But I agree all evidence points to its impotence (pun?) in increasing birth rates.
Second, I think you were too hard on Lyz Lenz's book. She's arguing for equality of the burden for taking care of a household. I read her book and I didn't take it as a condemnation of all marriages but rather a critique of the institution as it exists on average today with women doing far more of the work than men. In her book she makes a pretty good case that her marriage was a stifling inequitable burden.
Finally, this is coming at time when in America, 1) a big source of socioeconomic divide is college grad or not and 2) women are rapidly outpacing men in their rates of college graduation. There are now more female graduates overall and with each younger age group the gap is wider.
Perhaps IVF and improving the procedure and the technology and lowering the cost for freezing eggs is one answer.