by IgnoranceIsBliss » Thu 29 Jan 2009, 18:28:37
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')nd Beth Golden, a Scituate, Mass., mother of two, still plans to have a third child, despite her relatives admonishing her about the cost of college tuition. “I just feel that bringing a child into the world is much more important to me than thinking about financial responsibilities 18 years from now,” she says. “The joy a child brings to my life cannot amount to the value of anything else.”
Even if families intend to hold off, as the saying goes, the best laid plans often go astray.
Morgan points out that nearly 50 percent of pregnancies in the U.S. are “unintended.” “I would expect some fertility downturn, but the spigot will not be turned off,” he says. “People will continue to smoke, drink — and have sex.”
This is from the above linked article (the one from 2009). I think the woman who is having her 3rd child is being kind of selfish. She needs to get a hobby.
Anyway, I'm interested to see if there is a decline in the birth rate as most seem to think (except me). My town is 33% Mexican and most of these families have very young chilldren and infants. In fact, at one local school, they just had a huge increase in the number of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) students,
all in grades Kindergarten and 1st. I don't see this changing any time soon, but I could be wrong.
I personally have 2 friends who are pregnant right now. (ages 37 and 36) One is having her 1st child (and plans to have a 2nd as soon as possible) and the other is having her 3rd. I also just found out that a former co-worker of mine just had her 3rd child. (#2 was an accident and so was #3) This is a woman with a graduate degree. My friend who is 37 and having her first child any day now (with plans to get pregnant again asap) is in the following situation: (1) owns 2 homes (bought a big new one before the small one sold, and it never did) The big new house just went into foreclosure and they moved into the smaller house (still paid way too much for it in 2006). (2) Just bought a new Honda CRV because "they were offering good deals" (3) works for a timeshare company which just layed off 80% of the workforce. My friend is one of the only people left there! (and this was before they bought the car) Insane... I am 100% sure they have no stored food, formula, etc. I forgot to add that this friend also has her masters degree!