U.S. Birth Rate Reaches Record Low [why have the women given up?]

HHS | June 2003 | Centers for Disease Control

[only1percent]

"I wonder if the birth rate is only down for white women."

Nope -- it's down among black women as well. It may be down among Asian women, but the ethnic / education / immigration status mix of Asian women of childbearing age shifts so rapidly that it is difficult to make meaningful comparisons over time. The birthrate in Mexico and Latin America is also falling -- suggesting that it might be falling among recent immigrants from there to the U.S., but I don't recall seeing those figures.

[LizardQueen]

So will being pregnant make me develop a patience gland?

You won't grow an extra gland, but patience may come in time. Or you'll clench your teeth a lot and develop TMJ. Or both (that's what happened to my sister, who had little patience but still more than I do. She did get a bit more patient, but also grinds her teeth a lot more :::lol::).

LQ

[Xenalyte]

That settles it - I ALREADY grind my teeth. If I ground any harder, I wouldn't have any teefus left!

[only1percent]

The Church doesn't seem to be doing much to encourage large families. In my parish of 500+ families, I can think of a handful of families with 4 kids, a couple dozen families with 3 kids, and 100+ families with 1 or 2 kids. Some of these are young families with room to grow, but most are as big as they'll get.

(Well, there's one guy with 6 kids -- but he's on his third family of two kids each... and he still takes Communion courtesy of TWO annulments.)

[Penner]

"The birth rate fell to 43 births per 1,000 females 15-19 years of age in 2002, a 5-percent decline from 2001 and a 28-percent decline from 1990."

In California's San Joaquin Valley, it is around 80 per 1,000 females; no danger of population decline here.

[ppaul]

...patience is crucial to childrearing, and I have very little.

Well, ask any parent.
You develop patience.
Like fine wine, it comes with age - and experience...
and a commitment forged out of love for those little ones with whom God has blessed you.
When you sit back and ponder, it reduces you to tears of joy.

[CrystalClear]

Hey girl...it's me AntiV...personally...after one kid...I knew I had the same emotional make-up as you have described above, I am toological and when it was time to discuss a bloddy knee, I was getting logical and upset that my daughter won't quit crying...when a lil kiss on the boo boo would have been the majic...(go figure and I never knew)...

Personally...I believe that females who are from "driven" backgrounds (some call dysfunctional) best NOT have kids...only perpetuates the DYSFUNCTIONAL.

I do have a suggestion that is a win win for you and some lucky kid. Be a Big Sister...and show a child who needs some guidance form a "Strong woman" that you don't have to be a victim for life.

[Age of Reason]

Do me a favor, LQ: If you find out anything about whether Green Acres was formerly an airfield or not, please let me know.

I'd like to hear about it.

There was also a short-lived early airfield in Suffolk county: Brindley field, which was on the corner of Larkfield and Jericho in Commack or Northport. There's also an old cemetary thereabouts too.

Brindley was in use by the Army for only a few years, in the nineteen-teens, before being abandoned.

There was also an army base, Camp Upton, on the site of what is now Brookhaven Labs.

To learn more about Long Island history, this is a great resource: http://www.newsday.com/extras/lihistory/

You and your dad can find some great old maps of Long Island here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/gmdhtml/gmdhome.html

The panoramic maps there are the greatest--they have about a half-dozen of them. The nearest to your family's land would be the one of Valley Stream.

Here's a great site on a Suffolk County set of towns: http://www.longwood.k12.ny.us/history/

And here's a page on that Newsday website that you must see: You can get the story of each Long Island town, along with an old map showing how it looked a hundred or so years ago, by clicking on one of the areas in the black outline of LI at the top of the page: http://www.newsday.com/extras/lihistory/spectown/townmain.htm

[Xenalyte]

Be a Big Sister...and show a child who needs some guidance form a "Strong woman" that you don't have to be a victim for life.

That is a GREAT idea which bears much looking into after the season is over. Thanks!

[LizardQueen]

Thanks for the links!

I talk to them 1x a week, and will be going down there in early August, so I'll check with him as soon as I can. Dad is a big-time history buff so he'll probably know right away.

LQ

[ex-snook]

You have more patience that you think. You may want to control more than is desirable. The time that you spend putting your posts together show that you have patience. I hope you find the right guy (or he finds you!) and love will provide all the patience that a child will need. Marriage succeeds when three replaces me and me.

[Xenalyte]

You're a sweetheart to cast me in that light. :)

I already have the right man - next Thursday will mark six years since we met - and we've discussed children. We've decided to let the question be for the time being, since we're still reeling from the effects of home purchase, but we have agreed on adopting should the time become right. (So I guess the part about pregnancy helping me grow patience is moot.)

[Lorianne]

Resolution is a medical term. There are 4 things that could be the end result of a pregnancy (resolution):

live birth
stillbirth
miscarriage
abortion

Abortion has never been higher than 25% of pregnancies (in the mid 1980's it reached it's highest point then dropped off) in the USA. Currently abortions are the estimated resolution of 21% of pregnancies in the USA. Miscarriages are in the range of 10-14% of (known) pregnancies. Stillbirths are in the range of 2-4% of pregnancies. The remainder are live births.

[Clemenza]

That used to depend on whether you walked on Columbus/Amsterdam or West End Ave!

Its absolutely amazing how Columbus Avenue (and to a slightly lesser extent, Amsterdam), changed overnight from middle class to slum in the 1950s (a disturbing trend now going on in parts of my neighborhood) and, just as rapidly, to one of the most expensive areas in the city in the 1980s. Its gotten to the point that all of Broadway is Yuppified up to about 120th Street.

Sort of like today. Some young couples prefer dog(s). Let's call them DIPSs (double income, pooper scooper).

New York Magazine once referred to these people as DINKS (Double Income, No Kids).

[Clemenza]

Lawn Guyland was still RINO when I grew up there in the 1980s (lived in Malverne, went to school in Valley Stream District 13). Now its increasingly Dem, with only ONE Republican congressman (Peter King) and neither Nassau nor Suffolk have gone GOP in a presidential election since 1988.

Green Acres started to get REALLY BAD around 1988. I used to love going there for Luca Pizza and Haagan Das, to say nothing of the great French Fry place in the food court (the simple pleasures of childhood). Sadly, the "feral youth" of Jamaica and Bed Stuy decided to turn it into an enclosed version of their neighborhoods. I haven't been back to Green Acres in 14 years, but it looks a little shabby from the LIRR when I take the train to Jones Beach.

[Clemenza]

What are now Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, were then mostly farms.

Pete Hamill once remarked how he used to see small farms taking the Elevated to Coney Island in the early 1940s. The last commercial farm in Queens (if you could call it that, it was down to two acres at most) closed about six years ago. I wonder if Grossman's "Farm" (which was nothing more than a glorified fruit stand when I was a kid) is still there in Malverne.

[ex-snook]

"Its absolutely amazing how Columbus Avenue (and to a slightly lesser extent, Amsterdam), changed overnight from middle class to slum in the 1950s "

It's an up and down cycle. I lived on Columbus in the late 20s with the El outside our window, heat only from a coal stove, assorted wild life and a bathroom in the hall for the whole floor. It could only go up. Regards,

[Clemenza]

I lived on Columbus in the late 20s with the El outside our window

I'm impressed! I guess that you are in your 80s. If so, its good to see you still Freepin.'

My Grandmother (born in 1922) still can't work the VCR Correctly, let alone go online.

[LizardQueen]

I grew up in Baldwin, got out in 1981 when I went to college and only came back for 1 year for some additional tech schooling in about 1986.

The Republican Machine was a big one in Nassau County and the Town of Hempstead in the '80s - Tom Gulotta and his henchmen ran it like their own personal fiefdom. I worked at a town park during summers when I was in college and the only way to get a job was to talk to your local Republican rep and you'd magically get hired without even an interview.
I don't know much about the state gov't at that time as I wasn't old enough to vote until my sophomore year of college and by then I was registered in Vermont, where I went to school and then stayed.

The last time I went to Green Acres was about 10 years ago to buy my folks a turntable at The Wiz (or should it be spelled "Whiz"? LOL) who had a store right next to it. It was a little scary - creepy guys hanging out and staring at you, garbage all over the parking lot. I haven't been back since.

LQ

[LizardQueen]

I wonder if Grossman's "Farm" (which was nothing more than a glorified fruit stand when I was a kid) is still there in Malverne.

I can ask my mom - she keeps mental track of every vegetable stand in a 50 mile radius from Baldwin ::lol::

There was one on Merrick Road in Oceanside that we went to all the time as kids. We used to pick up the fallen, wilted vegetables and bring them home to make dinner for the Barbies with ::lol::

Unfortunately that's not there anymore either - It got paved over during the last expansion of South Nassau Community Hospital.

LQ