Two newsletters in my inbox today warn of “extinction” of the human race and otherwise called a “population implosion.”
Dr Lawler’s says “The cohort of grandparents outnumbers the cohort of grandchildren” could more accurately be written “The cohort of sterile old people outnumbers the cohort of grandchildren” for the problem lies precisely in the contraception mentality of the now-elderly who didn’t have enough children, and their few children aren’t having enough. Large families more likely beget large families.
Furthermore, this population implosion may actually be a good thing as poverty may bring entitled middle-class people back from the falsehoods of materialism to a more moderate lifestyle and outlook.
Let’s also consider a critique of the Church’s push for “natural family planning” and rather allow God to plan our families, especially as people get married later and have fewer years in which to receive these precious gifts from God.
My solutions to the problem…
- Stop promoting “college and career” and starting talking about vocation and family. Girls, especially, need the confidence to be wives and mothers that comes from simply knowing how to do it. Home-ec courses, mentoring in baby care (through babysitting as tweens and teens, and a helpful older mother when she has her own), economics courses, how to educate her children, how to please her husband. Helen Andelin’s book (that the woke culture would love to cancel!) Fascinating Womanhood could be one of the texts.
- Boys: aspire to have a stay-home wife / Girls: aspire to be a stay-home wife
- Learn frugality so that you can live on one income, tithe the full 10% to God, and be able to deal with whatever tax hikes and inflation throw your way. I haven’t read this book (but want to), but the title is good enough to suggest a great lesson for our children: Preparing Sons to Provide for a Single-income Family.
- Homeschooling might work. But only might. So, prepare for it by training as a teacher (girls), but also be open to sending your children to school. You may not have a good classical, Christian school in your area. Be prepared to help your children navigate the nonsense present in school so they can make the most of it, and your family can stay sane and get holy in the process.
- STOP using NFP. If you are a Catholic family who is planning your children like pagans do, but just using NFP to accomplish it, then you’re just using contraception. Face it. God doesn’t want you saying “no” to another baby. If there actually are “grave” reasons, then make the sacrifice of complete and total abstinence. If you are using NFP to conceive, then good for you. That’s the only good reason for it. But, still, it is narrow-minded. The solution to infertility may not be present in the program you are using. Consider also for the hopeful-mother: chiropractic adjustments (especially if you were/are an athlete), vitamin deficiencies, poor diet, too much excessive exercise, God-based anti-anxiety counseling, etc.
Every Catholic family: have another baby now!
The Revolution 