Birth Rates, Bless Me!

It was very interesting this week to look at trends concerning families. One of the most interesting was that people are having fewer children. This is odd to think about when you constantly hear about overpopulation. This is especially odd in LDS culture where every way you look there are kids popping out of the ground. A good example of this is my husband’s family where he grew up with six sisters.

But it is true that people are having fewer children in the world. As I thought about that, it made me think of the Developing World class I took last semester. In that class we looked at the birth rates of developing countries and found that they are declining. Years ago, women in those countries would have many children for several reasons: more family members to help and to take care of the parents, no birth control, and more chances that a child would survive to adulthood. But then women, and more men, started to become educated, more technology and medical care became available, fewer children under five were dying, and families made more money. The birth rate declined.

Though the birth rate declining for different countries is for different reasons, I still thought it very interesting to compare the information from two classes.

I also thought about how many children I want. We discussed how the family size we were brought up in will influence how many children we want. I know that I have always wanted three or four kids. And, funnily enough, my parents had three kids. But I also feel overwhelmed in large families where there are many kids. I’m just not use to it and I’m out of my comfort zone in those situations (although that is sort of what life does, puts you out of your comfort zone so that you can learn). However many children I have is fine with me. If I’m supposed to have three, awesome. If I’m supposed to have seven, awesome and Lord bless with extra, extra strength.