Mother's Day

Yesterday it was Mother's Day (well in Canada anyway, in the UK it happens earlier). It occurred to me as I was watching the tv advertisements for Florists and un-subtle reminders of this 'special' consumer day, that parenthood appears to be happening later and later in many people's lives here in the West. Part of it is undoubtedly to do with the transition from an industrial to a knowledge-based economy, with a greater emphasis on an educated workforce meaning more years having to be spent in higher education etc. Scanning the job adverts in local papers, nowadays it appears one needs a university degree as a pre-requiste before even consider applying for entry level clerical positions. Many individuals do not enter the job market until their mid-20s, and therefore would not be in position to entertain thoughts of marriage (and subsequent parenthood) until much later.

The second part is more cultural. We have a whole generation that has grown up on a diet of American cultural media products such as 'Sex and the City' and 'Friends' (or 'Coupling' - the UK product - just to keep things balanced :) ), where the focus is at the atomic individualistic level, where it's all about (in varying degrees) hedonism, about instant gratification, about lonely pathetic individuals trying vainly to seek 'fulfillment' on a bleak urban landscape who equate sex with love, and love with shopping. It's all about the ubiquitous 'finding yourself' - which you can explain to your 30-something superficial dinner party friends, who no doubt will rejoice in this affirmation of being 'independent' (and childless) urban white collar warriors....

Carrying on this theme of 'finding yourself' last week I had a conversation with a gora work colleague who is 35, about his girlfriend (of same age) who was expecting their first child. After congratulating him on his impending fatherhood, he mentioned they had decided to wait because a) they wanted to be sure that they liked each other (after living with each other for 9 years) b) wanted to go on holidays 2 or 3 times a year and c) now they were sure, and next year they could get married....

..I did some quick mental arithmetic afterwards. If his future offspring adopted the same attitude as him, got married at 35, and say decided to wait a couple of years to have first child(37 years), he would be like, 74 years old when he becomes a grandparent...wow - what a thought.

Addendum:

LOL...I'm not quite sure what the point of my post was. I probably sound like some fundamentalist mullah (complete with obligatory henna dyed beard), or some puppet of new Pope Benedict drumming the beat for 'family values' etc. I don't know why I wrote all of the above...I think I'm becoming mentally unstable.... :)