Don't lie, I am sure we have all thought of this question at least once in our lifetime. Whether it was talking with your spouse or just plain wondering one day the number of children we want to have or will have is bound to cross your mind at some point.
Obviously the topic of children is very important to the family. But what I learned today in class completely surprised me.
We have all heard of the Baby Boomers, the time period where it seemed as though everyone was having lots of babies and our population was rapidly increasing. Well it actually turns out that not as many babies as I thought were actually born in this time period. The average number of children per household was around 3. Now maybe its just because I grew up in Utah and I am used to families with bigger numbers than that, but when I thought about the baby boom I imagined 6-8 kids in every household. I was shocked at the actual information from this time period.
So now I am sure you are all wondering, how does that really effect us today? The baby boom effected the world so much back then and continues to effect us now with our population rates. In fact some people believe our population is in danger. The fertility rate needs to be at 2.13. This means unless we reach that fertility rate for each household our population will begin to increase dramatically.
I had never really thought about this topic or how it related to my life at all. I always just figured I would stop having kids when I wanted to, which would probably be around 3 or 4. Although I do feel this is a good number of kids, I now have a few more things that will play a factor in my decision for children. First of all if each house hold needs to have at least 2.13 children then I probably need to make sure I do my part. I had never really thought that maybe God would plan on me having more kids. As we talked as a class I realized that a lot of times Heavenly Father has a different plan that what we have for ourselves. When the time is right and I am feeling ready to be done I need to remember to ask Heavenly Father if that is really what he wants of me and my family.
Another point that is a huge factor in the decision of a baby is finances. I would say this is important but I would like to say this isn't everything. All our lives we are taught that money can't buy happiness and I really believe it can't. My family makes me happy and there is no price tag on them. This is a tricky subject and so I am going to speak lightly and say that maybe Heavenly Father just wants His children to grow up with love and the right foundation, maybe he doesn't really care about the money. Take it for what you will because it really is completely a personal choice.
These are just a few points that have crossed my mind as we began discussing the important topic of children. There are many important things to think about while starting a family and I found the fertility rate to be very interesting. I can't help but wonder what our population will start to look like at the end of my lifetime.
Anyways, fun topic! Thanks for reading.
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