Today Having Kids sent a letter to Prince William and Kate Middleton, respectfully urging the royal couple to lead by example and consider forgoing having a third child (as they intimated they might). The letter also suggested the couple might use the opportunity to highlight the importance of family planning and to work with other families to plan better starts in life for their children.
The British royal family sets an extremely influential example in everything they do. Many studies also show that public figures serve as especially effective role models when it comes to family planning. As much-loved public figures, William and Kate have a unique capability to model a sustainable small family, and Having Kids would love to see them do so.
Recently, scientists like those involved in the highly-publicized study from Lund University in Sweden have confirmed that the best way to reduce climate change is to have fewer children. “William and Kate have a tremendous opportunity to model their choice of a smaller family. In doing so, they would set a powerful example of mitigating climate change and its impacts, including impacts on the United Kingdom like severe flooding, deadlier heatwaves, increase in diseases, and wildlife extinctions,” said Having Kids Executive Director Anne Green.
“Moreover, given the vast economic inequalities in the world today, the couple also has the opportunity to model a simple principle: Every child deserves a fair start in life,” said Green.
The letter also calls upon the couple to consider using some of the resources that would have gone into the cost of a third child to help other couples plan a better start in life for their own children. Few children will have the advantages and opportunities in life Prince George and Princess Charlotte have, but we can start to close that gap with better family planning.
At Having Kids:
We promote and protect every child’s right to a fair start in life by replacing unsustainable, parent-centered family planning models with the human rights-based and child-centered Fair Start family planning model. The model suggests a shift in family planning from a subjective focus on just the parents, to an objective focus that considers the interests of the potential child, the parents, and the community.
It’s all about this: Smaller families working together to give every child a fair start in life.
Today many families are adopting the Fair Start family planning model. First, they try to give their child a fair start in life by having a smaller family where they can invest more in their child. Often they also foster or adopt one of the many children eagerly waiting for parents rather than creating additional need. Second, they publicly role model their choices. Finally, these families join public advocacy campaigns to shift resources from extractive centers of power like governments, corporations, and wealthy families in order to democratically empower children and future citizens by incentivizing better family planning by all parents. Why? All parents know that the quality of their own child’s life will depend on how other parents decide to have and raise their kids.
