This week I write a truly "Thinking Aloud" kind of column. I would love to write about the whole unfolding irony of our self-declared feminist prime minister being taken down by a "gasp" strong woman, but that will have to wait for a later date when we have more details.
When I was a young mom in the nineties, with plans of up to six children, the Population Armageddon people were expounding the dangers of an ever-increasing population. These dear folks never seemed willing to reduce the exponential harm of their own existence, but they were very eager to tell everyone else that they needed to be unselfish and either not have any children or just one or at most two. To have any more was just considered vulgar. The folks were especially happy to tell those in developing nations to reduce their populations, which I always found a strangely colonialist idea in those professing great enlightenment.
So here I was, in the sophisticated metropolis of PG, (compared to my home community where a family of six children was considered small) traipsing about town on business supply runs, banking, and parts pickup, with my three, four and then six kids in tow.
Our wedding ceremony had not included an exchange of rings. At about four kids I looked down at my bare ring finger, at my gaggle of cuties, at the fact that I was nearly always in town alone with my kids as Daddy worked in a logging camp, and came to a conclusion; I needed a wedding band. My obliging hubby got me one, which I proudly wear.
But that didn't mitigate the fact that I had six kids. At least now strangers knew that there was at least a "present" father to these kids, but still, the gall!
Cue to 2019, and this interesting study co-authored by a Warren Sanderson, a professor of economics and history at State University of New York at Stonybrook and written about in an article by Amanda Onion on ABC News. The study apparently shows, lo and behold, not only will the population peak at 9 billion in 2070, but that may be a generous estimate! Now instead of too many people, we might actually be in danger of having too few!
My rallying cry may need to become "Women of the World, Unite, we must have babies!"
I am hoping that my kids will, if not fight over who gets to take care of us in our old age, at least not have to purchase a robot to be my friend and caregiver when I am old and infirm.
