Is the gradual, but steady decrease in family size affecting everyone, or just the family? In the past several decades the family size has decreased from 3.8 in 1950, to 1.8 in the present time. There could be many different reasons for this decline, so is it bad? Can it be considered a good thing, or are we all just messing with God’s plan to replenish the earth?

There is more than just one reason of the family shrinking. The number one reason, I believe, is that women are much more involved in the work force than ever before. They now have many more opportunities being presented, and accepted to women. Men are staying at home with the children a lot more than ever, however, with the women in the work force, it has become increasingly more difficult for them to have the number of babies they were having previously.

Another reason for the decline in families is because of the cost of raising children. The average cost raising a child to the age of 18 has increased over the past decades from 198,500 to $245,340 in 2013 (1). This is a lot of money, especially for your “mid-income” family. This can cause hard ships that couples are just not willing to take.

The divorce rates could also have something to do with the decline in family size. Once a couple enters into a marriage and has a child, the statistics are showing more and more that that couple ends in divorce. The strain of splitting the child from their natural parent is real in a family, and will, most often times, cause problems with that child, or children. That is a hardship for both parent and child. After one divorces, it is much more difficult to want to bring another child into the equation.

Having less children does not automatically cause the children in the family to have entitlement. I come from a family of three children. I don’t feel that my parents would have given more any “more” if I had only one sibling vs what I was given. If I was the only child, I would think I probably would have been more “entitled”. Not necessarily with “things” but I might think that the attention always needed to be on myself rather than share the spotlight with others. In thinking of friends I have that are only children, I can see where they would be a little more self centered, but I don’t think they even realize it. It’s just how they have been brought up. All the attention was on them. Their parents had no other children to focus on, so it went to their child. Two or three is good in my opinion.

It has also been argued that having more children could hurt the environment or economy. I would like to point out China for this point. China had a “one child” policy for many many decades. Their government realized the hardship that was actually making on their economy, so in 2016 they increased it from one child to two. They were seeing that the were experiencing a “growth decline” and knew that this would be detrimental to their economy. With their “one child” policy they were having less people to work in a very large population. They are aging and dying, and without more birth than deaths, the population was declining. Now that they have put in the two child policy, they are stil not seeing the incline they feel they need to sustain their economy. This is due to people being used to just one child and are often times choosing not to have any children at all. One of those reasons for not having any is due to the increase in the cost of living. It’s a full circle. By making it policy to have only one child, they have come to hurt the whole country rather than help it.

Having less children in this day and time, I believe, is inevitable. There are so many people struggling to make end meat, and as inflation comes about, it is just worse and worse. Let’s not, however, condemn those that choose to have more. It was commanded by God to go forth and replenish the earth, so whether it be one, two or ten, let’s all work together to make this world a happy and loving place where families and be families either big or small.

(1)     Gao, George. “Americans' Ideal Family Size Is Smaller than It Used to Be.” Pew Research Center, Pew Research Center, 8 May 2015, https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2015/05/08/ideal-size-of-the-american-family.