Sometimes, I open a news portal page and wonder whether people are living on the same planet as me.
Last week, during a panel discussion at a conference held by the National Commission for the Promotion of Equality (NCPE), at an event which centred on perceptions and attitudes towards work-life balance, with a particular emphasis on family size, a panel member was quoted as saying: “We need to persuade today’s generation, those who prefer raising cats and dogs instead of children, to have at least three children”.
I have read that line repeatedly and, yet, no matter how I try to spin it, I still find myself unable to get over how problematic statements like this are.
On a global level, the earth is literally dying.
2024 marked the planet’s hottest year ever and surpassed the critical 1.5°C global warming limit we were warned about decades ago. If this limit continues to be surpassed, severe environmental consequences will occur, including increased sea levels (great news for Malta) and extreme weather events.
We also seem to find ourselves on the brink of a world war every other week, thanks to leaders who seem more concerned with dick-measuring contests than actual leadership.
But even if we managed to make a valiant effort to ignore all that outside noise, we’d still be left with our local social structure: a structure wholly incompatible with the average person being able to raise three children comfortably without aid.
And don’t get me started with all that ‘all you need is love’ crap; so far, no belly was ever filled with love.
Our wages have not increased but the cost of living and house prices continue to soar. This means that the option of one person staying at home to raise children is becoming more and more of a fantasy.
So, if you are going to have children instead of a cat or a dog, you need more support than ever before.
Traditionally, the help supply would be undertaken by the older women in the family clan; however, nowadays, many grandmas are either at work themselves or have figured out that they don’t have to spend their lives in an endless cycle of child-rearing just because someone else said so.
Considering all this, you’d think the same authorities bleating about our decreasing population rate would have amplified the support given to contributing members of society who willingly want to have offspring.
Yet, services remain somewhat inflexible and many parents with no outside assistance find it hard to have full-time jobs and be there for pick-ups, drop-offs and the endless flurry of holidays, half days and activities that children today have.
Integrating one child’s schedule is hard enough but you must be truly committed to child rearing to wish that upon yourself thrice over. Oh, and let’s not forget the endless pressure to look like a Victoria’s Secret model while making your children’s lunch boxes look like little, organic, gourmet works of art.
Today’s young couples don’t need persuading to have three children for whom there are no resources; they need to be persuaded not to go on a murderous rampage for all the things our parents’ generation graciously ignored because they were born in the sweet spot of history and had it good.
Many people don’t prefer raising cats and dogs to children: they’re forced to.