Great Reset: A Change of Purpose
According to a 2022 Insider article, “5 Reasons More Millennials Are Choosing Not to Have Children”, there are a myriad of reasons why many millennials are delaying having children.
Hilary Hoffower, the writer of the article, writes, “birth rates and fertility rates have been steadily declining for the past eight years. Today, people of childbearing age, many of whom are millennials, are delaying having children — or not having them at all.” The article went on to state that with this trend, America is becoming more in tune with the rest of the world.
“Since 1950, the worldwide fertility rate dropped from an average of 4.7 children to 2.4 children. Fertility rates in the US peaked in 2007, before declining in 2008 during the Great Recession and accelerating its slump when the pandemic hit.”
All generations have had differing outlooks on starting a family and with these outlooks, there have been several components that inform whatever decisions are made- economic stability, a safe and healthy environment, education attainment, etc. But within the last twenty years, as millennials have peaked at the age where they are at the mid-adulthood years- 30’s-, the decision to have a child and raise a family has proven to be harder than in previous instances.
Hoffower writes, “various factors explain this, from increased contraception to fear of bringing a child into a world with a changing climate. Chief among them is an expensive economy riddled by a pandemic and that lacks affordable childcare, coinciding with decades of progress for professional women as choosing to be child-free becomes less of a taboo.”
Socially and culturally, there was a set understanding that men and women got married and had children by a certain age but with the onset of changing dynamics, this model has completely changed. But it does beg the question of this being a cause for concern when in reality, this might be what is needed after a roller-coaster of world-changing events. Perhaps the term “Great Recession” should be retired and instead, the ‘Great Reset” is what it should be called now.
John Coleman, in his 2022 article for Harvard Business Review , “Redefining Your Purpose in The Wake of the Pandemic” writes, “The pandemic changed your purpose. The only question now is if you will consciously embrace this transition and use it to craft an intentional, meaningful future in its aftermath…This will be hard. Everyone’s process of reflection and action will look different.”
With the trend in delaying starting families in the aftermath of the pandemic, perhaps this is a result of a change of purpose.
