Life without children?

I am now a grandfather. I did not realize how much I would enjoy playing a part in seeing the next generation emerge. My three little granddaughters and one little grandson have brought immense joy to my life. I don’t know what life in my latter 50’s would have looked like without them. Even now while I write, I can see their faces and hear their voices. Family is so important.

Recently I came upon a report entitled, “Life without Children,” and its thesis alarmed me. The study examined how a delay in parenting, a decline in births, and the devaluing of parenthood was making North America more self-centered and less child-centered. As a result, the 21st Century was transitioning from a “child-rearing” to a “child-free” generation.

“We are in the midst of a profound change in American life,” they stated. “Demographically, socially and culturally, [we are] shifting from a society of child-rearing families to a society of child-free adults. The percentage of households with children has declined from half of all households in 1960 to less than one-third today—the lowest percentage in the nation’s history.”

The latest statistics on Canada’s birth rate for 2009 was 10.28 births per 1,000 of our population. Our world ranking presently sits at 191st. Even China is replacing its present population at a faster rate, and is ranked above us at 150. That number translates into a failure of our Canadian society. We are losing our essential DNA slowly every year. We are at a tipping point in terms of culture. The critical mass for maintaining our distinctiveness is being lost. Our Government put out a report in February stating, “The total fertility rate, defined as the number of children born per woman of child-bearing age, peaked at 3.9 children per woman in 1959 towards the end of the period known as the “baby boom” and has declined significantly since then.”

Their most recent assessment, what they call “the projection horizon,” stated that Canada will fall well below the replacement rate of 2.1 children to 1.5 children per woman of child-bearing age (www2.parl.gc.ca/sites/PBO). The over 65 age bracket will grow, the rate of prime working age Canadians will fall, and the GNP and ongoing economic condition will be drastically affected and lowered as a result.

The “Life without Children” study went on to say, “It is hard enough to rear children in a society that is organized to support that essential social task. Consider how much more difficult it becomes when a society is indifferent at best, and hostile, at worst, to those who are caring for the next generation.”

Pope John Paul II, in his 1982 lecture on the Theology of the Body, spoke to the danger on the horizon for society if it continued to disregard the importance and value of life, marriage, family and parenting. We are seeing that come to pass today. If we want to know what is most sacred in this world, all we have to do is look for what is most violently profaned, and every value he spoke about has been trampled upon in the last 28 years.

The 2009 book, Souls in Transition summarized a longitudinal study of emerging adults ages eighteen to twenty three, conducted by the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the University of Notre Dame. The book’s researchers found that: “Marriage, children and religion tend to go together….The more marriage and children are delayed, the more religious involvement is postponed and perhaps never reengaged…”

A recent survey, reported by the Faith at Home group, made us aware again of an ancient truth. What we all felt, but didn’t have empirical studies to affirm, was confirmed: mom and dad are the most significant influence in the lives of children, far above any rival. No program or venue can match the impact a mom and dad has in their children’s lives.

Moms and dads are responsible for faith – beliefs and values, and as a result, critical to their children’s fundamental moral base. Strong, healthy marriages produce strong, healthy families who in turn produce strong, healthy communities. We can never underestimate the vital role that they play.

To see Canada become strong, we must start by ensuring that we carry a value of life right from the get go of conception. It will require of us a commitment to the institution of marriage and to the development and maintenance of long-term relationships. It will demand a shift in our hearts so that we no longer see our children as a burden to bear but recognize them as a blessing from God sent from Heaven.

Can you imagine life without children? Can you envisage walking down the streets of our cities and seldom seeing or hearing a child? Can you picture a Canada where sighting a child is a rare thing?

The fact is this. There are less and less children in our nation. Schools are closing. We are losing the next generation. For that statistic to change, a quantum shift must take place inside of us all. For Canada’s sake, I pray that is soon.