Sarah McCammon

Like just sort of sneering at having a large family.

Um, and I even remember encountering that in my own family on one occasion.

Um, you know, when, when my mother was pregnant with my fourth sibling, uh,

I remember just really happily telling my great aunt, who was very progressive and a lovely woman and a wonderful woman, but she just had a different view of this than my family did.

I remember telling her how excited I was to have another baby in the family and how I hoped we would have one more.

I was eight.

I was eight.

And I loved babies.

And she looked at me and she said, Sarah, that's so selfish.

She used the word selfish.

Wow.

To the idea that having a large family was taking up resources, you know, that was selfish.

And so I think that that idea exists too.

That was not my family of four.

We drove used cars and we didn't go on vacation very much.

You know, I mean, it's like, but I think there is, especially in a certain class, there is a perception that, you know, having a lot of kids is either impossible because you have to give them everything or it's...

You're correct.

I mean, one of the things that Brian and I have reported on is how politically coded a lot of this conversation has become.

And most of the, while mainstream researchers and demographers, you know, across the political spectrum or people whose work is really just rooted in data will absolutely validate that there's a real trend going on here and it will have real economic and social impacts, especially as this trend accelerates, if it accelerates as it looks like it's going to.

You know, and I think one of the stories we did recently is about the fact that there is sort of a growing conversation among more progressive people about like, well, what what how do we respond to this this change and what does it say about society and what does it say about, you know, the way that parents are or are not supported?