A Compelling Case for More Kids
A key theme of this book is uncommon for this day and age. The author (and his wife — who both came from larger-than-average families and are themselves the parents of six children) makes the seemingly incongruous case that the best way to make childhood and parenting less stressful and happier is to have more children, not fewer.
Before you dismiss the premise as being made by someone with an investment in chaos, be aware that his reality is not unhinged. The book does use the term “messy” more than once. The author knows, as do many of us, that on the sunny side, we see how children brighten up a room; on the true-to-life side, we understand that the extra radiance might well be because the kids forgot to turn off the lights.
Is this encouraging message flying against the prevailing winds? Sure. That’s one of the reasons the journey is so difficult. Along the way, there are, for example, New York Times headlines that tell the establishment line all by themselves: “Would Human Extinction Be a Tragedy?” and “To Breed or Not to Breed?” As a result, our countrymen are instilled with fears that project a dim future. Accordingly, “By a two-to-one margin,” we read, “Americans believe that our standard of living will be worse a generation from now. Millennials and Generation Z are even more pessimistic.”
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