Younger generations

[Pjmm]

Back in the day us boomers were taking care of over 8+ children at once. Millennials and Gen Z can’t even take care of one. How come?

Too many extras.

ETA I read this as a financial question. Everyone else seems to have read it as focused on the number of kids.

Financial and one could argue back in the day there was no birth control other than condoms which most men hate. With the Pill women had a choice. So they had fewer children because pregnancies can be exhausting. And honestly unless you live the farming lifestyle where everyone works in the homestead eight children are difficult financially to raise. Also 100 years ago, many children didn't make it to adulthood. Times have changed.

[Anonymous 4]

Back in the day us boomers were taking care of over 8+ children at once. Millennials and Gen Z can’t even take care of one. How come?

Too many extras.

ETA I read this as a financial question. Everyone else seems to have read it as focused on the number of kids.

Financial and one could argue back in the day there was no birth control other than condoms which most men hate. With the Pill women had a choice. So they had fewer children because pregnancies can be exhausting. And honestly unless you live the farming lifestyle where everyone works in the homestead eight children are difficult financially to raise. Also 100 years ago, many children didn't make it to adulthood. Times have changed.

I just meant that for kids, financially things are different. I mean, back in the 30s there was the Great Depression and people learned to be creative and even the simplest meals were appreciated. If all you had was potato soup then that's what you had and were thankful. Things were made to stretch - juice watered down to go further, things sewn up instead of tossed and bought, clothes "remade" or "restyled" so the younger kid could wear it when the olders grew out of them, and people learned to get by without. And a lot of the children of the people who went through the Depression were probably taught similar techniques as they grew up. Money was spent on the basics for all those kids, rather than classes and activities and the latest technology for a few as we do now.

[Anonymous 7]

Probably because your generation wasn’t taking care of 8+ kids, you had your older children “help” with their siblings.

[MonarchMom]

Too many extras.

ETA I read this as a financial question. Everyone else seems to have read it as focused on the number of kids.

Financial and one could argue back in the day there was no birth control other than condoms which most men hate. With the Pill women had a choice. So they had fewer children because pregnancies can be exhausting. And honestly unless you live the farming lifestyle where everyone works in the homestead eight children are difficult financially to raise. Also 100 years ago, many children didn't make it to adulthood. Times have changed.

I just meant that for kids, financially things are different. I mean, back in the 30s there was the Great Depression and people learned to be creative and even the simplest meals were appreciated. If all you had was potato soup then that's what you had and were thankful. Things were made to stretch - juice watered down to go further, things sewn up instead of tossed and bought, clothes "remade" or "restyled" so the younger kid could wear it when the olders grew out of them, and people learned to get by without. And a lot of the children of the people who went through the Depression were probably taught similar techniques as they grew up. Money was spent on the basics for all those kids, rather than classes and activities and the latest technology for a few as we do now.

Ah yes... the "Great Depression." When children roamed the streets looking for handouts, woke at dawn to sell newspapers to earn pennies, and many didn't attend school because the were needed to perform labor at home.

I am all for reuse, repair and recycle and that is how we live. But I do not romanticize the lives of children in the 1930's. My parents both had memories of these times, no food in the house, no shoes, sporadic school attendance and grinding poverty.

[Pjmm]

Too many extras.

ETA I read this as a financial question. Everyone else seems to have read it as focused on the number of kids.

Financial and one could argue back in the day there was no birth control other than condoms which most men hate. With the Pill women had a choice. So they had fewer children because pregnancies can be exhausting. And honestly unless you live the farming lifestyle where everyone works in the homestead eight children are difficult financially to raise. Also 100 years ago, many children didn't make it to adulthood. Times have changed.

I just meant that for kids, financially things are different. I mean, back in the 30s there was the Great Depression and people learned to be creative and even the simplest meals were appreciated. If all you had was potato soup then that's what you had and were thankful. Things were made to stretch - juice watered down to go further, things sewn up instead of tossed and bought, clothes "remade" or "restyled" so the younger kid could wear it when the olders grew out of them, and people learned to get by without. And a lot of the children of the people who went through the Depression were probably taught similar techniques as they grew up. Money was spent on the basics for all those kids, rather than classes and activities and the latest technology for a few as we do now.

I don't think the Great Depression has a lot to do with it. It's just different now. These days women want careers, they have birth control, they don't NEED to have eight children they have to struggle to feed. I bet if the Pill was available in 1930 a lot of married couples would be making use of it. They'd be like we're barely making it we're not having kids now. Also Gen Z today are worried about housing, climate change, their careers. They're wondering what life will be like for their descendants 100 years from now. They can barely afford rent for themselves never mind a family. The rest just want to enjoy life. I didn't want kids for a long time. I just wanted to live my life and I was able to make that choice. A woman 100 years ago couldn't do that. Then there are people like my son who aren't sure they want children at all. Again, he can make that choice.

[LuckyEightWow]

I see more large families now than ‘back in the day’.

[SisterSomeone]

Now we have a choice not to. With the possible exception of the pathologically religious, who the f**k wants to have 8 children these days? Like, even if you leave aside the financial and practical aspects of having such an unmanageably sized family, imagine a perfect world how many people can there be who would actually want that?