When 37-year-old Heather Marcoux was expecting her son several years ago, she and her husband assumed he would be the first of many. But today, the parents are very clear that the young boy will never have a sibling. “We can offer our one child a pretty good standard of living,” she says. “But if we added any more kids, it would go down significantly.”
It's easy to see why young people are hesitating to have large families. Financial stability is more difficult to achieve than ever. One in 10 non-retired Americans say their finances may never recover from the COVID pandemic. For many, home ownership is nothing but a wild dream. In Marcoux's case, having to pay increasing living expenses and maintaining a home are part of the reasons why the family won't have more children. It's scary, she says, to think that something catastrophic could happen and throw them into financial crisis in the uncertain future. On top of that, adds Marcoux, she worries that she isn't providing enough for her son.
For other would-be parents, these financial concerns are only compounded by worries over political and civil unrest, both local and global. While wars and political issues have been a reality for nearly every generation, parents today face a world that seems much scarier than that of their own parents or grandparents. Despite higher-than-ever life expectancy, improved technology and access to modern healthcare, the constant presence of the mass media everywhere means we're much more aware of all the terrifying things happening around the world, from food shortages to school shootings.
The ongoing climate crisis is also a factor. A 2019 poll by Business Insider showed close to a third of Americans thought couples should “consider the negative effects of climate change when deciding whether to have children”. Marcoux says she fears the next generation will suffer with the worst effects of climate change, and she worries about the dismal version of the Earth her child and potential grandchildren will inherit. “Why would I bring another child into the mix when I sometimes think about the future and am just terrified for him or her?” This is also the question many young people have as they decide how many children to have, or whether to have any at all, in the face of increasingly desperate reports about the state of the planet.

(Adapted from bbc.com)