It seems like everyone I know is expecting or trying to get pregnant.

But births are at a 11-year low. And these individual decisions are having far-reaching consequences, according to Bloomberg Businessweek.

Similar decisions to postpone or forgo having babies may delay the recovery from the five-year U.S. housing slump and restrain future consumer spending on goods and services from child care to diapers, soaps and toothpaste. Expenditures associated with one child for a middle-income family are $226,920 over 17 years, with housing the biggest expense, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated in June.

The number of births fell to an estimated 4 million last year, the fewest since 1999, according to National Center for Health Statistics data. American families -- whose finances have been hurt by high unemployment, falling home prices and low pay raises -- lack confidence to plan for “explosions in spending” required by a new child, says Peter Francese, a demographic- trends analyst in Exeter, New Hampshire, for the MetLife Mature Market Institute. U.S. births may not recover until 2013, he predicts.

Bloomberg Businessweek also cites concern from manufacturers of diapers and other baby/kid products on the impact of low births on sales.

This is a classic chicken-or-the-egg dilemma. Families will have more kids when the economy improves, but the economy is not recovering as quickly because households are making belt-tightening decisions such as delaying parenthood.

Are you holding off having kids until your financial situation or the economy gets better?

Posted by Hanah Cho at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Babies and Toddlers
        

Here's Liz Atwood with this week's Tween Tuesday:

I was fascinated to read Liz Bowie’s story this week describing how Maryland schools may soon drop the teaching of cursive handwriting. The lessons are not included in the core curriculum the schools will begin following next year and some schools are leaving it up to the principals whether cursive is taught or not.

I’m not sure how I feel about the change. I never had nice penmanship and my handwriting has gotten only worse over the years. The only time I’ve seen my older son, who is in high school, write in cursive is when he signs his name.

My fifth grader is struggling to learn cursive now. He doesn’t have good penmanship, but I haven’t heard any teachers complain. I can understand that the kids might have more important things to learn these days than how to write the cursive Q or properly cross their Ts.

Still, I worry that something will be lost if kids no longer learn to write in cursive. Doesn’t the patience required to write perfect rows of Bs build character? And if kids can’t write cursive, how will they be able to read cursive? Will cursive become a secret code that only a few can decipher?

What do you think? Has your tween learned to write in cursive? Should cursive writing still be taught?

Posted by Hanah Cho at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (3)
Categories: Teens
        

Here's Liz Atwood with this week's Tween Tuesday:

Sometimes trying to entertain kids makes you feel really old.

A good friend offered to watch my 10-year-old son this week when schools were closed for parent conferences. When she called to invite him over to play with her son for the day, she said she had a craft the boys could make. Another friend planning to visit for Thanksgiving is looking forward to playing board games with the kids.

My boys, however, aren’t exactly jumping up and down with enthusiasm.

Crafts and board games sound like a lot of fun to me, but to my kids, these past times are low-tech and boring. In their world, if it doesn’t come with a battery or an electric cord, it’s no fun.

Now that the holiday shopping season is approaching, it’s perhaps a good time to consider the difference between what kids think is fun and what we think is fun. A Harris survey conducted in October found that 45 percent of adults who plan on buying toys this year will be buying children’s books. About 30 percent will buy arts and crafts and a 25 percent will buy board games.

But for kids like mine, all is not lost. The survey finds those with a tween (ages 10-12) in the household are planning to purchase games for consoles (67 percent), then children's books (43 percent) and board games (41 percent) while those with a teen (13-17) are buying games for consoles (62 percent), sports equipment (37 percent) and children's books (34 percent).

Personally, I think it’s good to expose the kids to old-fashioned pleasures like a game of Monopoly or Battleship. These games don’t have high-tech graphics, but at least I have a chance of winning.

Posted by Hanah Cho at 9:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Teens
        

Here's Liz Atwood with this week's Tween Tuesday:

As if having a tween or teen in the house doesn’t provides enough drama, a new study from the Girl Scout Research Institute shows that girls who regularly watch reality TV shows expect and accept a higher level of drama in their own lives.

The report also found that teen and tween girls who watch these shows accept more aggression and bullying in their lives and measure their worth by their appearance.

The impact of TV on children has been debated and studied for decades. There is always a bit of a chicken and egg problem to the research. But this new report finds interesting differences between reality TV viewers and non-viewers.

And the news isn’t all bad. The report finds reality TV viewers more self-assured and more likely to aspire to leadership roles than non-reality TV viewers.

Posted by Hanah Cho at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Teens
        

I am going to resist making sarcastic jokes or making harsh judgments about the latest pregnancy for the serial parents and reality show stars Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar.

If you haven't heard, the Duggars are having their 20th child.

I have caught their show here and there, and it's not clear to me what they do for a living. Do they live off income from the show?

If you could afford to have as many kids as you want, why not, right?

Posted by Hanah Cho at 3:04 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)
Categories: Expecting
        

Here's Liz Atwood with this week's Tween Tuesday

At what point do you give up, raise the white flag, tell your tween, “You win” and move on?

I feel like I reached that point this week in my battles with my 10-year-old over soccer. Last year, he loved soccer so much that he played on both outdoor and indoor teams. This year, he moved up an age bracket and seems to have hated every minute of it. He doesn’t dislike the coach or his teammates. His team has a winning record. He says he hates running laps in practice. But I think he also dislikes soccer because now that he is with older boys, he longer is one of the best players on the team.

I’ve always insisted that my kids finish the season with any sport they start. But I’m at the end of my rope. The arguments over getting ready, the struggles to put shin guards and cleats on an unwilling kid and his whining afterward have finally done me in. When he protested about going to his soccer game on Saturday, I said, “You win.” There are still two more weeks of the season, but as far as I’m concerned, his season is over.

I recently read Dr. Gordon Livingston’s book Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart, and I was struck by what he said about child rearing. “When parents are preoccupied with unimportant issues like food consumption or room cleanliness, these will be arenas for endless conflict,” he writes. The Columbia psychiatrist went on to say, “When parents, convinced of their crucial roles in shaping the futures of their children, ask me, ‘What can I do to make sure this kid turns out well?’ they are often surprise at my response: ‘Not much , but maybe cutting down on the fights and not trying to control your child’s every decision might help to make everyone happier right now.’”

It’s advice I’m going to try to remember.

Posted by Hanah Cho at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1)
Categories: Teens
        

Here's Liz Atwood with this week's Tween Tuesday on Wednesday!

What a difference a few years makes. I have one son firmly planted in the teen years. Another right in the middle of the tween years. Both designations are a bit arbitrary, but the differences are real. Here are some of the differences I see:

1. The tween wanted to see the new Puss N Boots movie. The teen thought it was stupid. (The tween and I went and had a great time.)
2. The teen stayed up watching a scary movie on TV then went to bed; the tween watched the movie and went to my bed.
3. The teen is starting to be able to carry on a conversation with adults. The tween stammers and slips away as quickly as possible.
4. The tween plays with Legos and action figures. The teen compares his physique to an action figure.
5. When the teen likes a girl, he sends her a text or posts on her Facebook page. When the tween likes a girl, he throws her a football in recess.
6. The tween thinks school is lame and stupid. The teen thinks I’m lame and stupid.

How about you? What differences do you see in teens and tweens?

Posted by Hanah Cho at 6:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
Categories: Teens