Even the romanticized Nordic countries with all their glorious policy focused on parents and children, even with all that at the cost of higher tax rates, their people are still choosing NOT to have kids. A phenomenon trending globally.

The Wall Street Journal dropped this bombshell of an article:

Worldwide Efforts to Reverse the Baby Shortage Are Falling Flat

Subsidized minivans, no income taxes: Countries have rolled out a range of benefits to encourage bigger families, with no luck

Those who have many children often say they would have them even without the benefits. Those who don’t say the benefits don’t make enough of a difference…Demographers suggest the reluctance to have kids is a fundamental cultural shift rather than a purely financial one.

The article highlights a couple women:

“She is frustrated at the implication that demographic challenges are her responsibility to solve. ‘It’s not our duty as Hungarian women to keep the nation alive,’ she said.”

Hot take, it kinda is.

“Her friend Ewa Sapieżyńska, a 44-year-old Polish-Norwegian writer and social scientist with one son, has helped her see the upside of the one-child lifestyle. ‘For me, the decision is not about money. It’s about my life,’ she said.”

Remember our Peter Pan note? Me Me Me My My My Now Now Now. “It’s about my life.” She says. Is it?

Real talk, the government cannot make anything special or valuable. The people do. The government, by design, can only protect what its people hold most valuable.

As JP says, “Any culture that doesn’t hold the image of the woman and infant sacred, dies.”

Therefore, the “shocking” logic pointed out in the WSJ article makes perfect sense. Not a bombshell after all. Culture at large has devalued families, more specifically mothers and children, ergo people don’t want to have kids and the population drops. Culture at large has devalued sacrifice and responsibility in such a way that the family is viewed as an annoying toy. Governments are trying to reignite the duty and valuable nature of families (having children) via incentives. But the people do not care. They don’t care, because they don’t value it. It doesn’t matter what the government does by way of convincing them otherwise. It’s not a top down matter. Just like I outlined in The Founding FTHRs & MTHRs

People create families > families form communities > communities create local city establishments/towns > cities create a larger divided entity, such as a state or province > and states or provinces collectively form a country. Therefore, the people within the framework of what has just been outlined establish the values and rules for which laws are based upon. The government itself does not do this. And a truly free and democratic republic-like government does only two things very well: enforce the law and protect its citizen.

Another quote to put it more plainly…

“Men did not love Rome because she was great. She was great because they had loved her.”

― G K Chesterton

There is a shame surrounding parenthood. Why? Children need leaders not victims.

The duty of parenthood is literally spit on, a bad taste in the mouth. See aforementioned article and cited quotes.

We hear about how women are channeling their innate mothering nature into modern day culture wars, instead of having children. Think 3rd wave feminism, BLM, #metoo, dog or cat moms, etc. The are individuals inappropriately channeling their innate drives into causes that are unproductive, instead of appropriately into building a family.

Parenthood IS a duty. That’s not a bad thing. We should be proud of it and honor it. There is absolutely nothing wrong with desiring to become a mom or dad. There’s also nothing wrong with being scared either. Barring extenuating circumstances, if you are choosing not to get married and have children because you want your weekends and/or more money in the wallet, grow up. If you’re a DINK, and proud of it, get outta here.

We need to shift the paradigm.

We’ve let the respect for men and women transform into a toxic victimhood. We’ve let society manipulate respect of women into derogatory victimhood and respect of men into dust. Poof.

And then we blame society for allowing this to happen while also continuing to support this paradigm. 

Stop asking for people to feel sorry for your predicament. Doesn’t work for toddlers, doesn’t work for us. Grow up. 

The family is the most sacred, each member of equal worth within their respective divine nature. You are only here because a man and a woman created you. We are literally designed from the mind, to the heart, to our physical being to find a mate and have children. And that’s OK. It’s okay. It’s not misogynistic. It’s not out dated. It’s not old school. It’s not small. Channel your divine desires into what they were actually meant for, creating a family. Stop misusing these desires and passions for tantrums of grandeur.

Families did not form on accident. Babies don’t magically appear one day from a stork.

The formation of the family is a very intentional structure.

Dad.

Mom.

Children.

A random government millions of years ago didn’t wave a wand and a family sprouted out of the ground. The universe does not work that way. There’s too much organization of matter for the family to be a random and unnatural occurrence.

So even with all the magical social programs that countries tote, until their cultures shifts and truly value parenthood and families again, people will continue to opt out.

Ride the T, MTHRFTHR.