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> Be absolutely ready to make a literal lifetime commitment to love and care for this child as a fellow human, before deciding to have one. Unfortunately, if

> Be absolutely ready to make a literal lifetime commitment to love and care for this child as a fellow human, before deciding to have one. Unfortunately, if you decide after all of this reflection that you don't want to have kids there is no need to worry, at least, about perpetuating the human race... because for every couple who conscientiously decides not to have kids, there are a half dozen more who don't give any thought to any of this whatsoever and proceed to have (often multiple) kids anyway.

ransom1538 4y ago
"there are a half dozen more who don't give any thought to any of this whatsoever and proceed to have (often multiple) kids anyway." You might have to update this [1]. People do care. People have an iphone now. People can read. The "tons of kids poppin" arguments don't hold. We will see a global wide population decrease soon. https://econofact.org/the-mystery-of-the-declining-u-s-birth-rate https://econofact.org/the-mystery-of-the-declining-u-s-birth...
- ChainOfFools 4y ago
  spend a couple months in and out of your local NICU, as I have, seeing firsthand the depressingly common spectacle of premature neonates being left alone for days, sometimes over a week, by parents (or parent) who can't make the time to visit their own clinging-to-life offspring. Because their lives are already overburdoned by the several other - somehow always toddler-age - children in tow with them. Lives frequently complicated by various degrees of substance abuse, leading to the NICU births. You would not be as comfortable googling some factoid response here. Whatever the macro trend may be in terms of total birthrate, its the constitution of those births, in terms of quality of life, my post was referring to.
  - nostrademons 4y ago
    Pretty heavy selection bias in that sample. All the people who chose not to have kids obviously are not going to be in the NICU. Among the people who do choose to have kids, those with good prenatal care and healthy habits are going to be very underrepresented in the NICU, particularly if you're in a community where you see a lot of substance abuse. So what's left is what you've observed.
  - xyzzy_plugh 4y ago
    This seems awfully America-centric. I understand what you're saying but in my experience it is a local phenomena, not global. Most parents (or at least a parent) spend a lot of time with their kids at the start of their life.

ransom1538 4y ago

"there are a half dozen more who don't give any thought to any of this whatsoever and proceed to have (often multiple) kids anyway." You might have to update this [1]. People do care. People have an iphone now. People can read. The "tons of kids poppin" arguments don't hold. We will see a global wide population decrease soon. https://econofact.org/the-mystery-of-the-declining-u-s-birth-rate https://econofact.org/the-mystery-of-the-declining-u-s-birth...

ChainOfFools 4y ago
spend a couple months in and out of your local NICU, as I have, seeing firsthand the depressingly common spectacle of premature neonates being left alone for days, sometimes over a week, by parents (or parent) who can't make the time to visit their own clinging-to-life offspring. Because their lives are already overburdoned by the several other - somehow always toddler-age - children in tow with them. Lives frequently complicated by various degrees of substance abuse, leading to the NICU births. You would not be as comfortable googling some factoid response here. Whatever the macro trend may be in terms of total birthrate, its the constitution of those births, in terms of quality of life, my post was referring to.
- nostrademons 4y ago
  Pretty heavy selection bias in that sample. All the people who chose not to have kids obviously are not going to be in the NICU. Among the people who do choose to have kids, those with good prenatal care and healthy habits are going to be very underrepresented in the NICU, particularly if you're in a community where you see a lot of substance abuse. So what's left is what you've observed.
- xyzzy_plugh 4y ago
  This seems awfully America-centric. I understand what you're saying but in my experience it is a local phenomena, not global. Most parents (or at least a parent) spend a lot of time with their kids at the start of their life.