Dear Kids,
It’s ok to have kids.
This may seem like a strange thing to say. With no background and no clues about what has been going on in my mind, you might very well think that is a strange thing to say. I guess I can elaborate.
For as long as I can remember, people have been saying that there are just too many people on this earth. As I said in my welcome post, which was only a couple days ago for me, I recently learned that there are about 7.5 billion (“buh buh billion with a B!” as my old science teacher used to say. I supposed he didn’t want us to mix up billion with million? I guess I’ll never know) people on this planet. Isn’t that supposed to be, like, way too many?
I recall very vaguely a documentary I must have watched in middle school or sometime in the early 2000’s. It talked about how we need to do something quickly about overpopulation. Google just told me that the population was just over 6 buh buh billion with a B back then.
I recently watched another documentary where Paul Ehrlich (Author of The Population Bomb) just explained how it is immoral (or unethical or something of the same) to have children when there are this many people on the planet. He explained that children use up not a negligible amount of resources on this planet. He even likened having a child to robbing a bank or some nonsense (sorry…nonsense to me anyway).
I don’t doubt his concern is genuine but it seems silly to me to think that I have already committed two metaphorical crimes and am currently committing a third for Mom is pregnant right now. Not only this but those crimes, in his mind at least, are equal to robbing a bank three times? Have you seen the movie Bandits with Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton by the way? This comparison gives all new meaning to the term “sleepover bandits”.
I wonder if Grandma and Grandpa saw similar documentaries and read similar studies from the scientific community back in their day (“back in their day” to be said in the Dana Carvey grumpy old man voice). Were they warned back then that it would be so dangerous to have me and your uncle and your aunt enter the world? Google just told me that the world population when your uncle was born in 1985 was just under 5 billion. Was having kids the same as robbing a bank back then? Mr Ehrlich wrote The Population Bomb in 1968 so I can only assume it was. I’m glad they did have kids though. Not for my own existence but for yours more than anything.
It’s important for you kids to understand that there are two sides to every coin and rarely is it heads on both sides. To use a phrase that I’ve heard at college recently by a young freshman girl…There is “a whole ‘nother” side to this argument about world population.
There are scientists and researchers that are genuinely worried that we aren’t having enough children. Improvements in medicine and other things have led to old people getting older. With so many old people having been scared away from having kids, there is no one to take care of them. This is especially visible in Greece at the moment. A bajillion old Greeks (that’s a metric “bajillion” by the way) are retired or retiring and the few young Greeks there are apparently don't want 75% of their income taken by the government and put towards caring for the bajillion old Greeks. This is evident by their throwing rocks through windows, lighting things on fire, and other effective ways of communicating (see… the old Greeks don't hear so well anymore so regular old words just aren’t effectual).
Maybe the whole situation could’ve been solved or made manageable at least if there were more kids to pay into the Greek social security equivalent. I’m not saying it is that simple but…could it be that simple?
Anyway, all of this is to say, I want you kids to know that it is ok to have kids, is all. I’m just worried lately that you will hear the same things I am hearing of doom and gloom and have that scare you away from having your own families and enjoying your lives to the fullest. Learn and much as you can about both sides of that coin I was talking about earlier and make sure you ask God what He would have you do. Then all that’s left is to stick to your guns and go forth with your plan.
That's just what I've been thinking about lately.
