If I were to ask you what the most important thing any adult human on the face of planet Earth might do with his or her time, what would your answer be?
For my part, the first “duty” of any person is the continuance of the species.
It’s somewhat reasonable to say things like, “If you want houses in which to live, food to eat, working electricity, and running water, there must be individuals who make it their business to keep such things available.”
Interestingly, this is not the “root” of what I’m on about today.
You can say we need the various disciplines that make it possible for society to continue on its present—or even a better—track; and being fair, you would be correct.
What you need to realize though, is without the “propagation of humanity”—reducing things, realizing I might be speaking somewhat obtusely, “people having babies”—there will be nobody to do those things needing, and even less so wanting, done.
If this seems complicated, allow me to simplify. As early and often as two adults can reliably produce offspring, obviously within reason, they should. What’s the major caveat? Bringing children into the World for whom you don’t care—for whom you fail to take responsibility—is a bad thing.
Having issued that “warning,” I would say I still count it important for humanity to live the ancient “edict.” About what am I speaking? One of the more basic expressions is, “Be fruitful and multiply.”
If you don’t know me, you might be inclined to believe I’m talking about wild orgies, resulting in the impregnation of women who are then solely responsible for the care, feeding, and general maintenance of the “results” thereof.
To be plain, I have no such intent.
What I am talking about, is a return to “family life”—both the “nuclear family,” and the extended.
Over the course of time, my experience indicates that, at least for certain groups, though I would argue in general, we have drifted further and further from (particularly the early) establishment of family groups.
Because of this, we are (according to statistical data) seeing a severely marked decrease in population generationally.
I have to acknowledge, I have a hard time keeping the demarcation of generations in my head. I know I count as a “cusp boomer” (that is, I am on the “bottom edge of” the group referred to as “baby boomers”).
As a rule, most in my cohort appear to have had enough babies, to sustain the population (though not much better than that).
Looking at subsequent age ranges though, that doesn’t seem to be true.
You may think nothing of that, allow me to assure you, it’s something about which you should certainly care.
There are a number of reasons this is the case.
The first and probably foremost of these, is where I began this piece. Without people to do the various things needing done to continue the normal operation of society, those processes will almost certainly fail.
In point of fact, you must typically produce more people. Why? If not, you don’t account for “simple attrition.” That is to say, a certain number of people will not survive for long enough to become “productive members of society.”
You may think it crass for me to say such a thing. I assure you I don’t desire it to be true. Nonetheless, true it is!
Not wishing for things to be factual doesn’t stop them from being so.
As an “old person” (I’m over sixty), I’m really no longer one who’s likely to produce more offspring.
Doing this is something younger folks ought to be thinking about.
Here are a few ”rubs.”
Most young people looking at their lives are likely pretty well aware they’re not anything like “well off.”
The tendency is to assume this is a reason to not bring children into the World. You need to understand something though. This reality is not unique to your generation—much less, you in particular.
My first child was born when I was but twenty-one years of age. I was a young military member at that time, and was below the poverty level. Life was not easy from a financial perspective. This is a simple reality of youth for most. This cannot be an excuse to keep one from reproducing.
Additional to this, at the time I began to have children, I really wasn’t sure who I was. Foundationally; I was entirely unclear on what I believed. Obviously, this is not ideal. Yet and still, it is the way of things for many—if not most—younger individuals. Again, this should not be a reason to not have children.
In fact, most parents I know would argue the opposite. They would tell you having children helped them to determine who they were and what they believed.
The final thing I want to discuss for the moment, is the idea that your career—particularly the work choices for young women, but honestly for both males and females—is more important than your reproduction.
If you choose to have three or four children, chances are, most of your time dealing with them on an “intensive basis” will occur within a span of less than twenty years (you can really argue it to probably be less than fifteen or even ten).
As your children grow and mature, you’re likely to find they need your attention less and less.
In fact, for most children, it’s really the first five years of life where they need you in the most time sensitive ways.
The way things tend to work, if you “group” bearing of children, this means you can pretty largely reduce the time needed to deal with them in time intensive manners.
Don’t get me wrong, you’ll still have to work with them as they grow older, but the ways they’ll need you will change substantially in the course of their lives.
The point is relatively simple. If you put off having children until you’re older, you may think you’ll be better prepared. The truth is though, particularly for women, time is not on your side where that’s concerned.
Does it seem like some sort of imposition to produce and rear progeny? Imagine your life without them—particularly as you grow older.
One more point and I’ll cease my nagging.
Until you have children, you have no idea what a wonderful thing it is so to do.
As usual, here’s hoping things are going well for you. If not, I pray for their improvement in the very near future.