Fair Start Movement

Category: News & Fair Start Headlines

  • Mixed Messages on Climate Change & Unsustainable Growth

    Mixed Messages on Climate Change & Unsustainable Growth

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    We’re hearing mixed messages about the state of our planet and the people on it. On the one hand, census reports show that the United States, which is struggling to deal with its current carbon footprint in order to protect future generations from climate change, will become a lot more crowded in years to come. Yet some thought leaders in Washington are pushing for faster growth “because it will help us sustain our labor force” and “increase consumer demand for lots of products that young people and young adults and young householders need.” 

    Businesses may benefit in the short term from a growing supply of workers competing against each other for jobs and long lines of customers to buy their goods and services, but the long term effects are much less clear. The approach raises many questions and highlights the mixed messages we’re receiving. Doesn’t this growth make it harder to mitigate climate change, which is already a major issue? Does having more kids mean less time and energy will be invested in each child? How does crowding affect kids’ quality of life, the connection between people and their community, their connection to nature, and our ability to work together to define the future? Are we all better off, in the long run, with small families working together to invest more in each child?

    These are important questions, and they need answering. Let’s start the conversation

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  • Motherhood, Redefined

    Motherhood, Redefined

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    Actor Kim Cattrall is speaking out on motherhood — despite having no biological children. “[T]here is a way to become a mother in this day and age that doesn’t include your name on the child’s birth certificate. You can express that maternal side very clearly, very strongly.”

    How? By helping to play a role in children’s and young adults’ lives. Kim highlights her work with young actors and her own nieces and nephews as being meaningful ways for her to make a difference in the lives of children. In other words, Kim embodies Having Kids’ goal of all people working together to invest more in each child. Would the world be a better place if more people mothered the way Kim does, cooperating to maximize care for the people we have, rather than increasing the number of people who need care? It’s a conversation worth having.

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  • Families in the Forest

    Families in the Forest

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    One school in the United Kingdom takes a direct approach to building a community in nature. The Pencoed Primary School has won the Royal Forestry Society gold award for a program that focuses on developing self-esteem and confidence by having children and their families work together in nature-based team building activities. For example, participants learn how to build campfires and use them for cooking.

    The program exemplifies a deep connection between families and the natural, nonhuman world around them. It also embodies the spirit of connectedness and engaged parenting that Having Kids celebrates. We’d love to see more opportunities like this for kids and their parents to learn together.

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  • Child Brides in the USA?

    Child Brides in the USA?

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    Mention child brides and most people will assume they exist only outside of the United States. But the reality is that thousands of children in the United States have recently taken marital vows. Most are girls married to adult men thanks to “parental consent” and other legal loopholes in minimum marriage age laws. These loopholes stem from a view of the family as isolated from the rest of society and a culture of parenting that lets parents control and limit their children’s future, including marrying them off to be wives – and mothers – before they are even adults.

    Let’s change that paradigm.

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  • Aging and the Economy

    Aging and the Economy

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    The news is filled with references to how smaller family sizes and the aging U.S. workforce are interfering with the supply of cheap labor that businesses have relied on for years. But as this article and graph show, it might not be accurate to say that economies are aging at all. Instead, they’re experiencing the latter effects of a population “bulge” created by the unsustainably high fertility rates of the baby boom, rates world governments intentionally tried to reduce to mitigate a host of problems. Today, we’re feeling the long-term effects of solutions to the 20th century population boom — solutions that were welcome and unavoidable.  

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  • Parental Regret: It’s Real.

    Parental Regret: It’s Real.

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    When given the chance to anonymously admit to their regret for having kids, many parents shared their stories. Their reasons are varied, and they love their children, but they know they didn’t make the best decision for themselves.

    These parents are in a lose-lose situation: the parents themselves struggle in isolation to provide the basics and to feel fulfilled, and the children struggle to get what they deserve. So what’s the alternative?

    Imagine a system where adults are encouraged (through tangible benefits like tax incentives and through a shift in society’s thinking about children) not to have children until they are truly ready. And when they are ready, they can work together with other parents (through things like small family trusts) to invest more in each child. And if they choose not to have children but instead decide to help other people’s kids, their philanthropy is welcomed.

    These parents’ admissions of regret suggest that we need to look for alternatives to our current system. The Having Kids model can help.

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  • Give All Kids an Equal Start

    Give All Kids an Equal Start

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    Two recent stories about the lives of poor kids growing up in the United States shed light on how crucial it is for all kids to have an equal start in life. Unfortunately, both articles show just how far we have to go to achieve that equality.

    Data shows that disadvantages in early childhood development determine the rest of a child’s life. And the day-to-day life of children varies dramatically depending on the conditions in which they are born. It’s time we let go of the myth that people are born equal in any way that really matters, and it’s clear that our “luck of the draw” system for deciding who gets what at birth needs to go. 

    Instead, let’s embrace parenting models that move resources from the rich to the poor to give all children a fair start in life.

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  • Kim and Kanye Calling it Quits?

    Kim and Kanye Calling it Quits?

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    It might be too soon to call, but it appears that Kim Kardashian and Kanye West are calling it quits on having any more kids. A TMZ exclusive reports that the “couple is completely cool with capping off their brood at two kids.” Did they decide based on concerns over Kim’s health, or the desire for a better future for their two children? We may never know, but we wish them the best either way!

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  • Adoption: A First Choice for First Kids

    Adoption: A First Choice for First Kids

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    Currently 100,000 children in foster care across the country sit in limbo waiting to join forever families. The adoption group Families in Mississippi for Kids says that many of these children have special needs, come to foster care at a very young age, and often remain in the system until they are teens and age out. While foster care can be very difficult for children, adoptees have a much greater chance of success and often thrive when they find a permanent home. Take Destini Stanford of Hendersonville, NC for instance. Destini spent many years in foster care until she was adopted at age 16. Now, she has overcome habitual shyness to become a public spokesperson for foster children and the benefits of adoption.

    Choosing to adopt allows parents to do a lot of good, both for the child who need a home and for themselves. Rather than having a first, second, or third biological child, prospective parents should consider adoption not as an alternative, but rather as an authentic way to experience parenting and share mutual love with a child who already exists and desperately needs to be loved. The Having Kids model encourages adoption, whether for one or all of a family’s children.

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