Warning: Parenting is Tough

Can we still do hard things?

There were quite a few headlines last week about parenting and also population decline last week:

The U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that parents are so stressed out, they can barely function, declaring it a public health issue (reported at Fortune ). “In my conversations with parents and caregivers across America, I have found guilt and shame have become pervasive, often leading them to hide their struggles, which perpetuates a vicious cycle.” Surgeon General Murthy wants to see more money to help parents and more government assistance programs.

Intellectual Takeout discussed that studies reveal that many people just don’t want kids and many of the ones that do essentially want it made easier by co-opting government help.

Over at The Week, they ask if population decline is really so scary. Who can even say what the birth rate should be? Sure, parenting is rewarding, but it’s also stressful. Aging can be a bummer, but we’re living longer and that’s a sign of our success. Anyway, providing green energy for all those people will create problems. “There's also something distasteful about viewing children instrumentally, about creating entire new human beings for the sake of some national political project."

At the Becoming Noble substack, Johann Kurtz suggests that parenting has a status problem, and is not valued in our society. While liberals can carry on childless if they wish, he wants to see the government support the formation of “cultural colonies”, where it is not a liability to raise kids. Or at least, get out of the way of those who are working to do so.

A species which has lost the will to procreate is something to be pitied and yet, some of our elites are talking themselves into believing such a thing is better. Children are a gift from the Lord and also one of the best ways to remind you of the fact that you are a poor miserable sinner! So yes, parenting is stressful as you realize your own limitations in the face of such a high calling. But our therapeutic culture would put even its own future in jeopardy, traded for the sake of comfort and ease. There is a strong anti-natalist streak in our nation and it is worth thinking about how to refute it.