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KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

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KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

Another reason for the falling birth rate is more complex: Raising children takes more effort than it used to. Breastfeeding is encouraged, kids enroll in more structured activities, and closer supervision is required. When Silents were raising their Gen X kids, it was common for children to roam their neighborhoods unsupervised; try that now and neighbors might call Child Protective Services. Constant supervision makes parenting more time-consuming and exhausting. There's also the expectation that children will play on sports teams and participate in other activities; some economists refer to this as "the rug rat race." Once the province of upper-middle-class families, this type of "intensive parenting" has become more common across social classes, with mothers spending more time each day caring for children in the late 2010s compared to the early 2000s.
Contrary to the idea that mothers spend less time with their kids now, they actually spend more-which makes having kids more challenging.

Some Millennials mention climate change or other uncertainties about the world at large as a reason why not to have children, leading to headlines like "Why Don't You Want Kids?
Because Apocalypse!" Millennial Gina Tomaine talked this over with her friends, many of whom told her this argument was "BS"-after all, large corporations, not individual people, are behind most environmental destruction. "Was my hypothetical baby really the problem when the literal Amazon is being slashed and burned?" she asks. In a 2022 poll, only 28% of adults who didn't want children mentioned climate change as one of the reasons, while 54% cited wanting more personal independence.

When Tomaine asked her own mother if she should have children, her mother mentioned the uncertain state of the world. "Come on! Grandma had all of you right after World War II. How bad could things be right now compared to that?" Tomaine responded. Maybe reverse psychology is the key, she concludes. "Memo to boomers desperate to become grandparents: Tell us millennials that we shouldn't have kids, and those fertility numbers should go up immediately. You're welcome, America."

January 14, 2026 at 2:17 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

I’m seeing a lot of talk about birth rates and what would or would not increase/decrease them that seem based on anecdata. It’s not conclusive, but *Generations* challenges or at least complexifies the claims that the majority of (at least Millennial) lower birth rates is climate or economic.

Individualism-being able to focus on yourself
-is another key driver. When younger adults who don't want children are asked why, the majority in national polls name not financial issues or climate change but reasons centered on individualism, such as the desire for more leisure time, wanting more personal independence, and the choice-based, matter-of-fact "I just don't want them." This is the luxury of the modern era: Birth control technology makes having children a choice, and individualism makes the choice not to have children acceptable. It's a fundamental shift in values from the young adulthood of the Silents, when people who didn't have children were looked upon as strange. In Junot Díaz's book This Is How You Lose Her, a woman wonders why her neighbor never had children. "Maybe she just doesn't like children," her teen son says. "Nobody likes children," says the mom. "That doesn't mean you don't have them."

Now, having kids is a free choice, and that choice often collides with the self-focused messages of the culture. If you've been told to put yourself first, having kids is a big ask. "We want to travel. We want to go out to cool experiential dinners," writes Millennial Gina Tomaine. Her generation's parents, she notes, "told us from our babyhood that we could do anything we wanted to do. They told us this because it was exactly what their Depression-era parents didn't tell them. That's one major reason we have the confidence to live the kinds of lives that we want
" In the 2020s, that belief in personal choice will increasingly collide with the rollback of legal abortion in many U.S. states after the Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade in June 2022.

Many trend pieces on Millennials' lower fertility cite the generation's economic struggles as the reason they aren't having children. Except, as we saw, Millennials are actually doing quite well economically. That argument also doesn't hold up at the individual level: On average, families with more income actually have fewer kids; those with less income have more kids. The link between higher income and fewer kids holds over time as well. Between 2010 and 2019, birth rates fell the most in U.S. counties with strong job growth-exactly the opposite of what you'd expect if money or lack of jobs was holding people back from having kids. A recent paper by three economists concluded that economic factors, including the cost of rent and student loan debt, were not the major driver of falling birth rates.
Instead it was "shifting priorities across cohorts of young adults" —in other words, generational differences in attitudes.

Still, even when couples can otherwise afford children, finding and affording childcare can be difficult. In the 2018 poll, 64% of young adults who said they expected to have fewer children than their ideal named "childcare is too expensive" as the reason. Nine out of 10 18- to
36-year-olds said that the cost of childcare is somewhat or very important in deciding whether to have children. Given that childcare costs have far outpaced inflation, the lack of paid parental leave and the high cost of childcare may be key reasons behind the birth rate decline. That's especially true because of the narrowing gender gap in pay we saw earlier; Millennial families lose more income than previous generations did when women leave the workforce to care for children.
However, the economists' paper found that states with rising childcare costs did not show bigger declines in birth rates—if anything, the opposite was true, suggesting the rise in childcare costs might have been driven by higher birth rates and thus more demand.

January 14, 2026 at 2:17 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

[sickos meme]

Hand holding a blue book titled The Twenty-First-Century Parson’s Handbook by Jared C. Cramer, photographed over a hardwood floor and patterned rug.

January 13, 2026 at 11:14 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

This is older than DHS.

January 13, 2026 at 4:44 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

You can specialize too

A humorous meme titled “Why not become Egglickcan? We got…” showing six panels on a bright blue background with yellow text, parodying reasons to join the Anglican or Episcopal Church.
Top left: Icon of Mary and baby Jesus labeled “Not like a regular mom I’m a cool mom.”
Top center: Smiling bishop resembling Gandalf labeled “Cool Gandalf dad.”
Top right: Queen Elizabeth II with two corgis labeled “Royal doggos.”
Bottom left: Painting of Jesus knocking on a door with a lantern labeled “God hisself (with a lampern).”
Bottom center: Woodcut of a church service labeled “The ol’ switcheroo (it’s also god hisself… maybe… no it is).”
Bottom right: The Book of Common Prayer labeled “The bible but no hard parts.”

January 12, 2026 at 9:06 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

This funeral kills fascism

A grieving woman stands beside an open casket containing a deceased Óscar Romero dressed in liturgical vestments. Several people in white robes and other mourners look on solemnly in the background.

January 11, 2026 at 2:06 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

“husband, father, Christian, patriot”

January 10, 2026 at 2:48 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

January 9, 2026 at 10:24 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

The Encyclical:

January 9, 2026 at 10:13 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

A teen girl sits at a desk in a bedroom, smiling at a large white desktop computer while holding a soda can; overlaid text reads “the Wampanoag,” and a caption at the bottom says “INTERESTING.”

January 9, 2026 at 9:35 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

It think this person has misread who I am

January 8, 2026 at 4:22 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

And are ye yet ready to enlist?

Alt text: A black-and-white historical illustration shows a massive torchlight parade marching through a city street at night. Rows of uniformed men in capes carry tall flaming torches and several flags; banners in the center include a portrait labeled “LINCOLN” and another reading “WIDE AWAKE.” Dense crowds line both sides of the street, with multi-story buildings behind them, including signage for “BAKER & GODWIN PRINTERS” and “TIMES,” while smoke from the torches drifts across the scene.

January 8, 2026 at 4:00 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

If you wonder what it was like to see things as such

Alt text: A sepia-toned 19th-century broadside poster with large black display type announces a “MEETING AT THE TOWN HALL!” on “Friday, December 2d.” It centers on “John Brown” and the line “The heroic Apostle of Freedom, suffers MARTYRDOM on a Virginia gallows to-day!” Smaller text says the church bells in Ravenna will be tolled from 1 to 2 p.m., and that a 7 o’clock Friday evening meeting at the Town Hall will be addressed by “O. F. Brown” (and perhaps others), opened and closed with prayer. The bottom is dated “Friday Morning, Dec. 2, 1859,” with a small printer credit.

January 8, 2026 at 2:19 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

Soon

A stylized comic panel shows two armed soldiers in green tactical gear riding in front of an armored vehicle in a desert landscape. The left soldier says, “Hey hey, look who it is.” The right soldier says, “The ‘DHS’,” with “DHS” emphasized in bold.

January 7, 2026 at 11:18 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

January 5, 2026 at 4:23 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

(The priest version of this)

An army recruiter somewhat crouching in his chair pointing with both hands to an empty chair.

January 5, 2026 at 4:21 AM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

Eh I guess it's better than Schumer's?

Senator Baldwin Releases Statement on Unauthorized Military Attack on Venezuela
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) released the following statement regarding President Donald Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela:

“After months of carrying out illegal strikes in the Caribbean, President Trump’s unauthorized military attack on Venezuela to arrest Maduro and take control of a sovereign nation puts American troops in harm’s way with no transparency, justification, or clear path forward.

"I’m committed to stopping the flow of illegal drugs and standing up to illegitimate dictators like Maduro, but President Trump has made a unilateral decision to initiate regime change, deploy American troops on the ground, and seemingly take control of Venezuela, all without congressional approval.

"The President does not have the unilateral authority to invade foreign countries, oust their governments, and seize their resources. Under the Constitution, the power to go to war lies with the people's branch. It's time for Republicans and Democrats in Congress to reassert our constitutional role in authorizing military force when needed and holding President Trump accountable before the United States is engaged in another war the American people did not choose."

January 3, 2026 at 9:14 PM

KidzBoptotenlieder

@theodramatist.com

I think all the folks who are freaking out about this would also be flabbergasted if there were a film that tried to actually portray Odysseus in late Bronze Age Mycenaean armor.