B16 had some words yesterday that hit pretty close to my thoughts about the childless and near-childless:
The Pope opined that “the lack of such creative and forward-looking love is the reason why many couples today choose not to marry, why so many marriages fail,and why birth rates have significantly diminished."
"Instead of feeling loved and cherished,” he said, children and young people often “appear to be merely tolerated.”
"Merely tolerated." That's an interesting way of putting it. Instead of unconditional love toward children and an acceptance of them, children come into the world on command. They are things acquired (by our choice), not blessings received (often not by our choice). How many adults have children "for the experience" or out of fear that they're "missing out on something" or because their friends are having babies? Plenty. I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of people have babies out of such sentiments. In this, children have become kind of like commodities. When they turn out to be a lot of work as well, parents tolerate them, but they often don't invite any more into the house.
It kind of reminds me of annoying house guests. You tolerate them (you can't be rude), but you don't cherish them, and you certainly don't invite them back.
