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From the Kitchen Table

For the Children

by Peg Luksik

Everyone knows that children are special. Every candidate takes a picture of himself kissing a smiling baby. Every special interest group promotes its latest public policy initiative as being "for the children". Every charity includes pictures of either needy or smiling children in its promotional materials.

We have more paraphernalia for children than ever. It is possible to purchase child-sized furniture and automobiles. We have safety seats for children up to age 12, flame-retardant pajamas, and mass fingerprinting. We have classes where even our tiniest tots can learn to swim, speak a foreign language, and play an instrument. We buy our children toys, from stuffed animals to electronics, that cost thousands of dollars.

One would think that we as a society consider children both desirable and valuable.

Unless a couple has more than one boy and one girl. Then the parents are treated to comments ranging from an astonished, "Oh! God bless you!" to a condescending, "Did your birth control method fail?" to an angry, "You are ruining the planet!" All uttered loudly and clearly in the presence of the children being referenced.

Or unless the mother of those children decides to become a stay-at-home mom. Then she becomes "just a mother". The professional community calls her choice the "mommy track", which is code for non-advancement. The government considers her contribution to society worthless in tax codes and Social Security. The educational establishment ignores her when it presents life style choices to young people.

Or unless we consider the amount spent by national and international organizations on preventing the conception and birth of children relative to the amount spent on providing adequate medical care to children already born. For example, in tragic and disturbing testimony from doctors in Third World countries, we learn that the internationally-funded clinics dispensing birth control are always well-stocked and well-funded, while the clinics, funded by the same organizations, dispensing antibiotics often go without adequate supplies and personnel.

Then it becomes apparent that we are a society where only 2 oppositely-sexed children, born into the right families, who do not upset the lifestyles of the adults who bore them, are valued. Children have become more like status symbol commodities than people.

Not only does this sound awful – it is awful. In every country that has ceased to welcome children generously, the falling birth rate is resulting in economic and social disaster. Renowned business expert Peter Drucker and his peers speak about how the below-replacement birthrate is creating a gap in the labor pool, making it extremely difficult for businesses to find workers. They cite the impact on social programs, predicting that the smaller worker-to-retiree tax ratio will put so much strain on systems such as Social Security that the retirement age will have to be raised from today's 65-ish to 79. They discuss the severe and negative impact that fewer consumers will have on national and international economies.

Lack of children is destroying us. In his book, "Management Challenges for the 21st Century", Drucker describes how Japan and all of southern Europe are "drifting toward collective national suicide by the end of the 21st century." He states that the United States is not far behind them.

Children bring life, both to their parents and to the society blessed with them. Children actually are both desirable and valuable. For everyone's sake, we should welcome them generously.