Seeing Both Sides

  Hello, dear reader, this week my fellow classmates and I studied family trends can impact the family and the world-wide trends on having fewer children. I come from a family of eight, with my parents and five siblings which has been lots of fun over the years. Sometimes we can aggravate each other and other times we can make something average turn into a blast. 

Throughout the world, since the generation that is called the baby boomers, people have become afraid that we would destroy the earth because our population had increased a lot in a very short period of time. A part of this concern came from the book The Population Bomb by Paul R. Ehrlich. A concern he had was that starvation would become a big problem because of the large number of people. It became a worldwide concern that by having children the increased population would hurt the environment and there would not be enough resources for future generations.

The idea that through having children we are overpopulating the earth and that it is something that we need to be concerned about is accurate; we need to be aware of the consequences that come from the choices we make as a society. Unfortunately, sometimes people become so focused on one view of a problem that they forget that there is a second side to the problem or issue. In this case, as people don’t have as many children as they once did the population can go into a decline. Population decline can be as large a problem as overpopulation.

It was very interesting to learn that around the world the birth rate has decreased significantly because the way family is viewed has changed. One reason it has changed a lot here in the United States of America is that here we live prosperously, our economy is high, and there is a lot of focus on people doing whatever works for them rather than being an active member of the community. In part, because of this focus and culture of doing whatever we want has made having a family something that is given low priority so that by the time people are ready to have kids it is nearly too late.

As a member of the human family living here on earth, it is important that we remember that we have a stewardship for our home and we do need to be mindful of how our actions affect both others and the environment around us. Having children and a family is a choice, one that should be gone into knowing that there is sacrifice involved, but that children test you and can help you see things that you did not see before. Children can help you to continue learning and to change into someone a little wiser then you were before. There is a balance in everything we do, and as a people we each need to find balance and make decisions knowing both sides of the story. 

We can’t tell anyone how many children they are or are not allowed to have, but we can teach others about the importance of family. Children are the next generation they are expected to continuously improve the systems around them. When the number of children decrees that means that the children who are born will have less competition in getting the things that they want. They will not necessarily have to become as smart as generations before them because they won’t have to fight as hard to be at the top. It is the competition that drives innovations and without that, the motivation to push ourselves harder to find the most clever solution will slowly disappear.