U.S. birth rate drops as more women say 'no' to motherhood

Toledo Blade ^ | 12/8/2013 | RONEISHA MULLEN

[MinorityRepublican]

The day that her four older siblings finally left home was the day Amy Wexler realized she didn’t want to be a mother.

She’d spent much of her childhood fighting with them over the bathroom, bedrooms, time, and money. When they left home, Ms. Wexler, who was still a teen at the time, enjoyed the luxuries her parents couldn’t always afford with a full house.

“I saw how it was with all of us and that had a big effect on me,” said Ms. Wexler of Toledo. “I just never thought it was my cup of tea. Just like I couldn’t do a surgical job, it’s just not a good fit.”

The U.S. birth rate dipped to an all-time low last year as more women like Ms. Wexler decided against motherhood. In 2012, there were 63 births per 1,000 women of childbearing age, compared to 69 births in 2007 and 118 in 1960, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It marked the fifth year in a row for the birth rate decline and the lowest rate on record since the government started tracking fertility rates in 1909.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Oh come on, doing TV newsreader, weather etc. is an honest job. What’s the matter, jealous?

[ZULU]

National suicide. The Libs are pleased. They can replace us with Muslim pigs.

[vladimir998]

“Our lives are not centered around the biological function of procreation. If yours is, that’s great for you.”

No, apparently yours is centered around pleasure.

I’m just saying. . .

[rbg81]

I have a friend who has been married and divorced three times, with no kids. He has all the man toys you could want. Expensive home, car, motorcycle, arcade games, entertainment room with 80” LCD tv, etc.

---

That about sums of the attitude for most people these daze who are middle class or above. They value toys, leisure time, and $$ more than kids and family. To them, the latter would just get in the way of what they THINK they want. The fact is most single people have no idea of the richness being a parent will add to their lives—most cannot conceive of it. They just look at things in purely economic and materialist terms.

These attitudes are a function of our materialistic society combined with the waning of religion as a driving force. The near worship of homosexuality is no help. There is also a negative view of motherhood by liberals and environmentalists. I lost track of the number of times I’ve heard people refer to moms as “breeders”.

Many couples will eventually have one kid, typically toward the end of their childbearing years (after they’ve gotten bored with toys and trips). If they decide they like it and want more, it’s usually too late.

[Little Ray]

Darn, Kipling was good:

On the first Feminian Sandstones we were promised the Fuller Life
(Which started by loving our neighbour and ended by loving his wife)
Till our women had no more children and the men lost reason and faith,
And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: “The Wages of Sin is Death.”

[trebb]

Bad news for the country, but possible good news for conservatives. Since conservatives typically have more kids than liberals do, a general drop in the national birthrate means an increased share of a generation will be raised by conservative parents. Whether that ends up with them being conservative depends on the quality of the parent I guess.

But potentially good news for the children that won't be put into such families...

[Bigg Red]

As a woman from the middle of a pack of 9 children, I think big families are great. I raised 4 sons, but I wanted more.

Growing up with many brothers and sisters can teach a child so many life lessons. Many youngsters today just don’t know how to handle life and how to get over themselves.

[Bigg Red]

In 35 years when she looks back on her life and choices, will it have been worth it?

***
Selfish is as selfish does.
It is better, though, that someone this shallow and selfish is not interested in procreating. That baby would be at a distinct emotional disadvantage.

[Paulie]

“What’s the matter, jealous?”

Hardly. Nice try though.

[Bigg Red]

Marriages often go through ups and downs. Yours may require a little repair work here and there. Maybe a few sessions with a marriage counselor would help. Isn’t it worth staying together still for the sake of your grandchildren?

Remember: It is not that your love sustains your marriage: your marriage sustains your love.

I will pray for you and your wife.

[onedoug]

Not in my SoCal neighborhood.

Remember that “Ratings Game” line: “I ain’t never seen so many white people in one place.”

[stanne]

Went to Christmas eve mass unconnected. 5:00. The kids mass. Over loaded. SRO. Two kids. There were a total of two children

It was like science fiction

Hosts said oh all the kids go in the morning

Its not just them. Denial
And Why isn’t the priest saying anything.?

The Chinese are taking over the schools here

What are these people thinking?

[detective]

In my post I clearly said “most women” not “all women”.

I don’t know your situation but if you say your wife does not want children I have no reason to doubt you.

I notice you said “we often feel sorry for our friends who have children that turn out to be dysfunctional idiots, who then breed like rabbits and burden their parents with their (usually) illegitimate offspring.”

I said most women want to be wives and mothers not breed illegitimate offspring.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Why is there such a (widely observed) positive correlation between religious faith and childbearing families?

Is it because religiously observant people don't use contraception and don't abort? Or is it because people of faith are consciously glorifying and pleasing God with more citizens for the Kingdom? Or is it that the "kind" of people who are devout (a temperament thing) tend also to be the "kind" of people who get satisfaction from having a goodly crop of kids?

Just guessing here.

Or maybe people who trust in God are more likely to say "Another kid? NOw? Well, OK, [calming their incipient panic] God will provide, somehow."

I personally --- as you know --- didn't seem to have much maternal "instinct" nor natural attraction to babies, until I was well into my 30's. I just had never had contact with babies. They seemed like soft-serv space aliens to me. But the baby-hunger came on me pretty robustly once we got married. And actually, I had a strong feeling, "Don-o ought to be a father. May his tribe increase!"

So, for me, anyhow, that was how and why.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Remember: It is not that your love sustains your marriage: your marriage sustains your love."

Well said.

[TalBlack]

“She’d spent much of her childhood fighting with them over the bathroom, bedrooms, time, and money. When they left home, Ms. Wexler, who was still a teen at the time, enjoyed the luxuries her parents couldn’t always afford with a full house.”

Understandable...to a point. Few teens would fail to luxuriate in the new circumstances.

Did the silence hanging in the now empty rooms NEVER haunt her? Did the GREAT change Time wrought never strike her mind. Did she not see and hear in memory ALL that had transpired within those walls? Did she not EVER feel all that was and was now forever gone?

This babe (or maybe he author) sounds like it’s all about her.

She SAW Life turn things 180 degrees, how can she now doubt that it will do it again?

[kabar]

However, for those concerned about the racial makeup of the replacement population, this chart shows that the difference in total fertility rate among ethnic classes is very modest.

Actually, it is very significant. These differences spell rapid demographic change. Anything below 2.1 is below replacement level. And when you add immigration to the mix, the impact is multiplied. See my post #15.

From the Bureau of the Census Press Release Dec 12, 2012:

"The non-Hispanic white population is projected to peak in 2024, at 199.6 million, up from 197.8 million in 2012. Unlike other race or ethnic groups, however, its population is projected to slowly decrease, falling by nearly 20.6 million from 2024 to 2060. Meanwhile, the Hispanic population would more than double, from 53.3 million in 2012 to 128.8 million in 2060. Consequently, by the end of the period, nearly one in three U.S. residents would be Hispanic, up from about one in six today.

The black population is expected to increase from 41.2 million to 61.8 million over the same period. Its share of the total population would rise slightly, from 13.1 percent in 2012 to 14.7 percent in 2060.

The Asian population is projected to more than double, from 15.9 million in 2012 to 34.4 million in 2060, with its share of nation's total population climbing from 5.1 percent to 8.2 percent in the same period.

Among the remaining race groups, American Indians and Alaska Natives would increase by more than half from now to 2060, from 3.9 million to 6.3 million, with their share of the total population edging up from 1.2 percent to 1.5 percent. The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander population is expected to nearly double, from 706,000 to 1.4 million. The number of people who identify themselves as being of two or more races is projected to more than triple, from 7.5 million to 26.7 million over the same period.

The U.S. is projected to become a majority-minority nation for the first time in 2043. While the non-Hispanic white population will remain the largest single group, no group will make up a majority.

All in all, minorities, now 37 percent of the U.S. population, are projected to comprise 57 percent of the population in 2060. (Minorities consist of all but the single-race, non-Hispanic white population.) The total minority population would more than double, from 116.2 million to 241.3 million over the period.

Other highlights:

The nation’s total population would cross the 400 million mark in 2051, reaching 420.3 million in 2060.

The proportion of the population younger than 18 is expected to change little over the 2012-2060 period, decreasing from 23.5 percent to 21.2 percent.

In 2056, for the first time, the older population, age 65 and over, is projected to outnumber the young, age under 18.

The working-age population (18 to 64) is expected to increase by 42 million between 2012 and 2060, from 197 million to 239 million, while its share of the total population declines from 62.7 percent to 56.9 percent.

The ratio of males to females is expected to remain stable at around 104.7 males per 100 females for the population under the age of 18. For the population age 18 to 64, the ratio of males per 100 females is projected to be 98.9 in 2012 and increase to 104.1 in 2060. The ratio for the population age 65 and over is also projected to increase, from 77.3 males per 100 females in 2012 to 84.4 in 2060.

[3Fingas]

Thanks you for your prayers and kind words. I hope you have a great New Year’s Day.

[Vaduz]

If you seen half the people in California you would call it a blessing.

[Regulator]

Yeah.

Been there, seen that.

Putin’s Russia pays new mothers the equivalent of $11,000 per kid now I believe for the first 3 years.

And of course he is pushing the Orthodox church back into it’s anchor role in Russian society, the bad girls of Pussy Riot found out the hard way he’s serious about that...

They had a precipitous drop in the birth rate after the fall of Communism, as their mediocre - but predictable - economy fell apart.

With the oil & gas business now dominating, and Russian consuemerism in Really High Gear (go to a cosmetics store in Moscow), they now have more confidence in the future.

And Putin is stamping out the suicidal social mores of Communism like Abortion and Homosexuality.

He’s obviously a Statist, but more in the German sense - he’s now essentially a Russian fascist. But that means he knows that without a Russian populace, he and his fascist buddies got nothin’. Only a bunch of angry Kazakhs to the South and unimpressed Europeans to the West.

So he plans to revive the Russian people. What good is being King if you got no people to rule over?

There’s a message there for the other “leaders” of the world. Stomping on your own people means you end up with nothing after a generation or two.

What’s really incredible is a populace that would vote for garbage who hates them. Guess that’s a special form of masochism.