This week in class we have been discussing Family Trends in the U.S. Some of them didn't surprise me as much like fact that more couples in the world are cohabiting instead of getting married and that people are getting married later in life. However some trends did surprise me such as; less children are being born and more mothers are going to work, especially mothers with young children. As we looked at trends we noticed patterns or connections between the different trends. The one most prevalent to me was that social activity is going down which in and of itself is not that big of a deal but less social activity leads to adults living on their own longer which leads to less marriages or getting married at a later age which leads to less children being born especially if the couple is older when they get married they have less opportunity to have more children. This trend is worry some as a Mormon since we have been commanded to multiply and replenish the Earth; this cannot be done if people are getting married later and not having as many children. In a documentary we watched "New Economic Reality: Demographic Winter" scientists discussed the problem that comes from people having less children. Big traditional families are no longer important in our society which means that couples are only having one or two children and believe that is enough. Our population is estimated to start decreasing by 2065 which may not affect our parents or us necessarily since most of today's young adults with be retired or nearly retired at that point but it will affect our children and their children.
When I told my roommate about this problem she said it's a good thing Mormon's still believe in big families. It all makes sense now, the reason we have missionaries is to convert the world so we can take over the world and have bigger families and solve the world's population problem. )