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Millennials Learned to Dread Motherhood
- jfengel 3y agoI think the author is looking at it backwards. It's not that they "learned to dread motherhood", but rather that they've always dreaded it and are only recently realizing that not doing so was an option. They're finally getting to ask, "What would happen if I didn't?" The author doesn't seem to want to address that, but just rely on old assumptions that parenting is automatically necessary. The human race is in no danger of extinction from depopulating itself -- and if that changes a few generations down the line, that will be a problem they can answer for themselves using the resources they have and their own best judgments. It doesn't take a TikTok video to make motherhood seem unappealing. It's always been unpleasant, and even more so from the assumption that it was a woman's only option. It's not merely a commitment. It closes off a million other lives that woman could have led. There are certainly things we could do as a society to make it less-unappealing, but I think we really need to take their own question seriously. Why not just have as many children as the women want to have? Yes, there are downsides, but what would it take to compensate for them? Maybe that outcome is both cheaper and better for the world.
- Ancalagon 3y agoI think another interesting take not talked about is a number of millenials view the system as broken. And by having kids they are not only perpetuating that system for a slim percentage of very well-off capitalists that would like to retain the status quo, but also dooming their children to live and be a part of that system.
- cafard 3y agoAs a boomer male, I can claim no insights here. But in my neighborhood there are a lot of women whom I know or assume to be millenials (27 to 42) and have more than one child.