Why Do Some Women Have 5+ Kids?
Why Do Some Women Have 5+ Kids?
My interview with Catherine Ruth Pakaluk, author of "Hannah's Children."
Dear Friends,
The declining American birthrate has been in the news a lot lately, and policymakers and researchers have been trying to figure out how to influence the rate to move in the other direction.
I’m not talking about a birth rate that is dropping from 6 kids per woman to 5 kids per woman; I’m talking about a current birth rate in the United States that is well below replacement level and that even immigration isn’t fixing. Having an older population that outweighs the younger generation is demographically dangerous and can lead to all sorts of social and infrastructural ills. So researchers are rushing to ask: Why aren’t people having enough children?
Economist Catherine Ruth Pakaluk recently asked a different question, however, in her interview-based book, Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth.1 She asks: Why do women who have several children choose to have so many?
I was pleased to interview Catherine recently for the Institute for Family Studies. I especially enjoyed her suggestions for how we as individuals can support mothers and fathers, whether they have only one child or several. For example, Catherine writes:
We could all go out of our way to say more encouraging things to mothers. It’s like a verbal flower bouquet.
Isn’t that a lovely sentiment?
Read the rest of our conversation here:
“5 Questions With Family Studies: Catherine Ruth Pakaluk on Why Some Women Choose to Have Large Families”
Now, let me ask you:
- Whether or not you are a parent, what are your best practices for encouraging parents of young children? (A smile or the gift of a bar of chocolate goes a long way!)
- If you are a parent, what do you find most encouraging from others?
Have a lovely weekend!
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A verbal bouquet! What a lovely notion. I try hard to smile or grin conspiratorially at a mom when her kid is in full meltdown in a public place, to show that I understand they are sometimes entirely irrational and it’s no reflection on her! Also the phrase “you have a beautiful family” seems well received.
I also say, “you’re doing great!” when the kids are giving her a hard time, but I’m not sure it translates culturally here in the UK as well as it could.
Also this idea was pretty powerful. “In my sample, women had more children despite these costs because they valued children enough to give up those things. In this framework, it isn’t hard to see why more maternity leave or cash benefits do not make a dent in birth rates—even if they are the right thing to do. People purchase children with their own selves. You can’t really compensate them enough to give up status, lifestyle, interests, and sleeping through the night. As for maternity leave, the tradeoffs women face between children and other things lasts for decades, not a few weeks after birth.”
This economic issue is actually tied to identity and a willingness to sacrifice one’s very self… which is hard to “buy” back from people with a little tax bonus.