Experts are afraid

The fertility rate of America is collapsing. But some young women are ready to do their part to avoid a young child.

The average American woman currently in her fertility years (ages 15-49) will have 1.7 children in her life, much below the replacement level of 2.1. And more zoomers and Millennials are choosing to give up their children, citing financial cost, climate change and career, among other reasons, according to voting.

It is a trend that concerns the demographers about the economic and social consequences of a shrinking and aging population – a crisis that currently destroys Japan and South Korea.

For Ashley Hartig, the decision to be a young and fruitful mother meant to resist the messages “Girl Chief”.

“I didn’t feel the need to focus on a career.

She and her husband, Derek, an entrepreneur in the transport industry, live in Sarasota, Florida, with their 8-year-old son, 5-year-old daughter and 15-month-old son-and they are planning a fourth possible year to give their younger sister nearby.

“I found much more joy because of my children,” she said. “I literally romantize everything that happens every day because everything feels so special when you are sharing it with your children.”

But the beginning of a family so early with her husband, Derek, was not easy. They fought for several years with numerous career changes and lack of home ownership. She says many other young women are drawn to the lifestyle of staying at home-and often reach her on social media to say so, but is so often out of reach of today’s economy.

“I think the biggest obstacle is definitely financial,” Hartig said. “Many people want to stay mothers at home, and that is almost impossible if your husband does not have a safe, high -paying job.”

A 2024 PEW study found that, among those under 50 who say they are unlikely to have children, 36% mentioned the affordability of growing a child as the reason why.

However, the number one reason was “they just do not want to” (57%), followed by the desire to follow other things (44%), concerns about the world’s condition (38%), concerned about the environment (26%), the lack of the right partner (24%), and the simple children do not like (20%).

Lillian, a 21-year-old who wants 10 children one day, admits her desire to be a mother is unusual in her generation, which has fallen victim to “anti-Nastalist” messages.

“General Z people don’t even want to be alive,” said Lillian, who works for a non-profit education and shares its time between Boston. “Everything feels really meaningless, the economic situation is not big, plus it has, life just doesn’t make sense, we don’t know what the future looks like. People are very desperate, and they are right, as, against life.”

Hartig even listens to her from her peers who are critical of her choices: “People have a lot of thoughts, saying that you are overcrowding the land, or they would never want that life, but the family is all that really matters in the end, and it’s really bad for them.”

Lillian does not have a partner yet, but she knows she would like to have a small army of children.

Its main motivation is “cultural repetition”.

“There are things I like in the world, which I want to see more in the world, and raising the children who have those beliefs is like a vote for the future you want,” explained Harvard’s last rank, who sought to go professional reasons.

The virtues she wants to spread: opening, intellectual curiosity, a sense of adventure, resistance and adaptability.

Lillian is identified with the property-growing property movement, including the father of 13 Elon Musk, who believes that the decline in birth levels threatens society both economically and economically-but she says the movement does not dictate its life choices.

“I am more motivated by the idea that the kids I have a blow to help the world than I have been sitting down and feeling forced to grow more,” she said.

“Property space tends to create the issue of having children in response to greater problems with the decline in birth levels, such as national security, economic health, demographic support, our ability to renew, etc.”

“Then there is a very clear religious field of Catholic and Protestant, Jewish and others, where there is a very clear, faith -based motivation here.”

Naomi Green grew up the seventh of nine children in an Orthodox Jewish family from Morristown, New Jersey – so she knows the benefits of a large family.

“I didn’t love it completely by growing up, but now as an adult, I appreciate it much more,” Green told The Post. “I never feel alone in this world. I always have a team. I have someone who can rely on any moment. “

28-year-old Connecticut resident just gave birth to a boy a week and a half and is also the mother of a 2-year-old daughter. She and her husband Yona, a 30-year-old engineer, plan, “God willingly” to add three other children to their family.

“I would really like my children to feel at school, at home, in life, wherever they are, that they are part of this team and unit, and they are not fighting their battles,” said Green, who is planning to become a doctor to become a doctor.

There is an increasing difference between the number of children a woman wants, and the number she actually has, called the “fertility gap”. According to the Bridwell Institute for Economic Freedom of SMMU, the average American woman says she will happen with 2.5 children – however she will most likely have only 1.7.

In her work at the Heritage Foundation, Waters, a 27-year-old mother of two seeking to form a “large family”, researching pro-family police to help close the gap.

She and her colleagues have honored in reforming well -being to remove marriage sentences, change the state and federal tax code to benefit parents and support couples fighting infertility.

It can be even harder to change the perception.

Madison Rae, a mother of three in Manhattan who runs the Tribeca Mom’s Club, said she is the subject of judgment to have a larger family.

“Because I live in the city, people think that having a lot of children is crazy,” she said. “They are mainly people who do not live in the city who comment on the space or quality of life.”

Meanwhile, she said, having large families has become a “trend” in her lower tribbean neighborhood.

“So many people I know personally are all of a sudden to have a third child,” the 35-year-old said. “I just feel like it wasn’t something a few years ago.”

Rae, who is married to a financial professional, always wanted a large family because she grew up a single child. Now she has a 7-year-old daughter, a 4-year-old boy and a 5-month-old boy.

“I don’t see [having kids] Like a thing that dies, “Rae told the post. When she pushes her walker downtown, she has been regularly stopped by parents thinking of adding their families:” People will literally ask me, “How are three? I feel like I do.” “