Posted on 12/29/2012 10:48:51 AM PST by MinorityRepublican
SALT LAKE CITY — Utah has had one of the nation's highest birth rates for quite a while, but over the last four years couples have chosen to have fewer children. One big reason for that: money, and the lack thereof.
Most any parent will tell you having a child is their greatest blessing ⁸ the more than 51,000 infants born in Utah this past year are living proof of that. But the number of Utah births is decreasing.
"We have seen a decline since 2006, 2007 — those were our biggest years. Those years we had about 60,000 babies born in the state," said Janice Houston, director of the Utah Office of Vital Records and Statistics.
With the release of the 2011 report on Utah's vital statistics, the state has seen the first four consecutive-year decline since the 1980s. Houston said that's because the birth rate is tied to the down economy.
Some of KSL TV's Facebook viewers can relate.
"We'd love to have more children, but figuring out how to provide everything … save for their college … is difficult in these times," wrote Meleah Williams Curtis.
"We decided it would be too hard on us to have another child, financially," Garrett McDermont wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at ksl.com ...
~Old Possum
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Tax-chick, not only are your children beautiful, they are intelligent, nice, funny and good members of society. I thank God that there are people like you and your husband in this country.
In too many parts of rural Utah, that is already the case.
Thanks, I like them, too. Did I mention Bill’s and Tom’s SAT scores? WAHOOOOOO! (Ahem.)
Anyway, the babies are not something we’ve deliberately accomplished: they are simply the natural result of a man and a woman’s being married, in good health, and fond of one another. If people have faith, hope, and love, all is well, whether they have no children or a dozen, and the opposite is true as well.
Now what about those SAT scores? :)
Bill’s score is 97th percentile in English, 75th in math, guaranteeing his admission as a sophomore to any state university he chooses, after his next semester at community college. Tom’s PSAT score as 99th percentile, and he’ll be a National Merit Scholar.
I got your point.
I think you ought to mind your own business when it comes to a good man and a good family.
How on earth do you suppose the “social fabric” of this country will start to mend without God-fearing, America-loving parents raising up their children in it?
What will you recommend next? That people who think tough times are a’coming (and that includes people like you AND me, by the way) ought to start advocating abortion?
‘Cause we sure don’t want to bring any poor unsuspecting souls into this maelstrom, right?
You must understand my position, which is: I really don’t care what you and others do. It will not affect me since I am an old man and from a family that doesn’t live very long...so I am living on the proverbial “borrowed time.” Most importantly of all, I leave no prodigy. So, you see, I really have no “skin in the game.”
I have long been a Christian and have lived a very moral life, so I expect to arise into a better life.
I was merely pointing out what ought to be obvious.
Anyway, I don’t know whether you’re young, old, or in-between, but you might be one of those who lives to regret certain decisions.
We have nothing more to say to each other. So, adios.
I don’t have any children, old man.
And I have plenty of regrets on my conscience, and for that matter sins, as well.
I have no “expectations” about arising from this life, but I have my struggles toward faith, and I have my prayers.
One thing we both have, we all have, is skin in this game. I have been sharp with you because you seem to think you have cashed your bets in, and you wanted that young father to wish he had done the same.
When the time comes to fight, if it does, I will fight for the likes of him AND for the likes of you-—you and I probably have a good deal more in common than he and I do, other than you have apparently lived your life more carefully and faithfully than I.
Nonetheless I would stand beside you, if you would allow it, and beside him just the same.
I will be praying for all of us.
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Excellent!
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