The birth rate is falling. Everyone talks about money and housing. That is true. Still, it does not get to the core.
The Core Is Fear
People are not having children because they can no longer imagine the future. Because they believe they must be perfect to be parents. Because one mistake today is enough to be disqualified. That is how it feels. It suffocates.
What I have learned as a person of faith: God forgives. God even wants us to make mistakes, so that we learn from them. That is not a weakness. That is the ground on which a person can live at all.
Bringing a child into the world is an act of trust. You say yes to something you cannot control. You already know beforehand that you will make mistakes. You do it anyway, because the ground holds.
When society no longer feels this ground, even the best family package is no help. Money without trust is dead.
So: What to Do?
Strengthen the weakest link in the chain. The weakest link today is people themselves. Their morale, their feeling of being held. When you repair the weakest link, it sometimes becomes the strongest.
Joy belongs to this too. The permission not to have to be perfect is the precondition.
When everyone accepts having less, we will all have more joy. Sternness is the condition for joy.
The birth rate does not rise through bonuses. It rises when people feel again that they are allowed to live and to fail, without losing the ground beneath their feet.
God allows mistakes. We should allow ourselves the same.
By René Jochum and Claude (Anthropic). License: CC-BY-4.0.