Does the family matter?

You guys have heard of the baby boom, right? Right after WWII, approximately 1946-1964, the population grew immensely. People were having babies left and right, children all over the streets. Why you may ask? People were happy, and enthusiasm increases desires. In this case, the desire to have children grew, causing the "baby boom". This is a good thing, right?

 During these times, the definition of marriage and family was to marry someone and have children with that person, creating a family. That's just what people did, right? That is why men and women were created in such a way that this would work. The roles of mother and father were typically the mother cares and nurtures the children while dad provides for the family. People also married young to start off a family at a decent time. The typical family had about three to four children each. That's just how it was during those times. That being said, what all of a sudden caused the population to drop in the 60's? What sort of actions were people doing to create this kind of a change?

During what is called the 2nd demographic transition in the 60's, the roles of women changed. More women were entering the paid work field instead of staying home with their children. Children were sent to daycare facilities for the mothers to work. Well, that was good, for the mothers to help out in paying the bills with her husband, wasn't it? Let's look a little deeper of the affects these actions may have caused:

More mothers were in the work field. The importance of education for women started to rise so dramatically, that women soon ended up focusing more on the education than getting married and raising a family. What sort of affects did this typically have on the family? Women putting off marriage concluded in the average age of marriage to rise, going from about 19-21 years to 21-23 years old. This age is still rising today. Women waiting to get married resulted in fertility rates decreasing as well. It was normal to have a big family in our parents day and age, however society has changed in which it seems unusual to have a big family anymore.

What about other aspects that may have caused a decrease in fertility rate? A big one is birth control. Once women were able to use that to control when they had children, that also increased the focus of education over family. Once the "pill" came out and people realized that they could sometimes control when to have children, the aspect of sex connected with marriage disconnected. People were having sex for fun instead of thinking about children as being a part of that special connection. People were more opt to live with one another without commitment because of the fear of getting pregnant decreased. All of a sudden, it was "okay" to have sex spontaneously with someone, sometimes anyone.

We talk about this thinking about the decisions the adults make, however let's think in different terms. Who else do these decisions of spontaneous sex, putting off marriage, or having children affect? The children; when someone accidentally gets pregnant that child does not have that choice to come to earth. I feel we overlook all sides of the spectrum and a huge side is the child's life. I think that when we put that child's life into perspective, we will be more opt to make smart decisions in our present and future families. The decisions we make affect not just us, but our families, friends, other loved ones and ultimately the society. Let's all try and make smart decisions today.