Babies are fun!

If I knew how much fun babies were, I’d have started having them much earlier. Sure they cry a lot but watching them grow up and develop their own personalities so quickly is the ride of a lifetime.

I recently learned from my parents that their generation (baby boomers) had fewer kids than their parents' generation as a reaction to the huge growth in birthrate post-World War Two. Apparently people really were worried about overpopulation.

A major side effect of this is that, compared to my parents who grew in large families, near their extended families, with babies always around, I have little experience with babies. I grew up far from my extended family and the only baby I know was my younger brother and he was a baby when I was too young to help out or really even remember much.

Because of this, my main exposure to babies was strangers' babies in public. When strangers' babies are well-behaved, you don't really notice them, but when they are crying or throwing a tantrum you definitely do. This left a massively negative impression, at least in my mind, on babies as a group. Had I grown up around more babies, I'd have gotten to partake in the magic of their cooing and early efforts of talking. And the joy of watching them discover the world starting with their own two hands and feet.

Small families who are far from their extended families is now the norm. The question is how can we give today's children who are unlikely to have more than one sibling of their own, the opportunity to spend more time around babies so they see the fun times and not just the hassles and responsibilities?