I don’t necessarily disagree with your overall point, but for some reason at least in US society you’re no longer allowed to broadly talk having kids like you used to be able to. Let me break that norm for a second.

So, are other activities more fun than child rearing? Often, yeah. Definitely less stressful. Rewarding? Not in a million goddamned years. Nothing, absolutely nothing, compares to when your kid first walks, talks, tackles a problem they had a hard time doing before, or tells you that they love spending time with you completely unprompted.

For what it’s worth, I personally think a good portion of the birth rate dropping is environmental. Maybe it’s plastics, pfas, or something else nobody is looking at. Some people still have an urge to have kids, completely separate from the urge to have sex. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that testosterone and sperm counts have been dropping among humans and dogs, and that the deliberately child free people I know all veer on the (forgive the derisive slang term, but I don’t know how else to get the point across) “soyboy” type of person - both male and female.

That potential pollution aspect also explains this happening to industrial societies.

> but for some reason at least in US society you’re no longer allowed to broadly talk having kids like you used to be able to.

This has not been my experience. What has changed is that its now looked-down on to denigrate people who choose not to have kids (in some circles), and that people are no longer treated as heroes for having children. It had historically been the case that people who chose to not have kids were browbeaten about their choices.

I have had no issues talking about my children at all even with people who have remained childless. This is because I respect other peoples' decisions when doing so.

> you’re no longer allowed to broadly talk having kids like you used to be able to

I'm not sure that this is the case, could you expand?

> the deliberately child free people I know all veer on the “soyboy” type of person

If you were to actually know parents at your local area daycare centers/schools, it'd quickly become evident that the "masculine"/"feminine" types are a definite minority.

I don’t buy that having children is the only really rewarding thing you could do as a human.

Like the only reasons you can come up with is mystery chemicals or soyboys - seriously?

I think it’s vastly more complex than “insert my favourite political reason” and includes many different factors.

Personally I think it’s telling that only the Orthodox Jews don’t seem to have that problem - with an extremely rigid, strict and misogynistic religion as their primary purpose.

Personally as a male I don’t mind having kids but if I were a woman no way in hell would I have one.

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