Bernard Berelson Why Do We Have Children

Majdi Balubaid Professor. M.HowardENWR_1101 February 20, 2017 Why Do We Have Children? Bernard Berelson seeks to attract our curiosity into giving consideration and attempt to answer one of the oldest humanity questions that are often ignored by many. Why do we want children? This is literary a simple question but difficult and in some situations impossible to answer. People from different backgrounds have infinite reasons as to why they want children. Berelson summarizes many reasons that are acceptable across all cultures by “The Value of Children: A Taxonomical Essay”. In the unconventional description, he was able to capture the “value of a child” in different cultural backgrounds. Amongst the reasons given include: biological, cultural,
In other cases, one might ask you, what do you mean by asking me why I want a child? Isn’t that what adults do when they get married? We have grown accustomed to the practice of growing up, getting married and starting our own family to the extent that it is considered normal. Most people rarely question the thoughts. In spite of the fact that majority of people are unwilling to spell out the exact reasons as to why they want a child. This confirms that every individual has a unique value that they attach to their children and the value is informed by their cultural background. I will disregard the notion that there are biological instincts that drive modern human beings into procreation. This is informed by the fact that there are numerous couples who are either singles or happily married and do not have kids. Many are pleasant with their lives. In some cases, they decide to adopt and bring up a child rather than bearing their own. If the biologic instinct was one of the reasons we procreate, then such families would not exist. The instinct may be present in other species but human beings are guided by
However, it is the value that we attach to the politics that forces us to comply. For example, a member of an ethnic minority group may feel obliged to bear more children for the future survival of the race. This is a cultural tie that drives them to bear more children and the fact that they value it; it makes them want to comply with the demand of the cultures. The economic aspect is another socially driven thought. This explains why some cultures have a supervision on their children as to control the budget. Another person from a new school of thoughts views a new family member as a potential worker, a source of new relationships and an asset to the family. In their own thinking, they choose to have more children against having hard economic times. As noted by Berelson, in Africa, parents are likely to have a large number of children as compared to Eastern Europe. In this case, Eastern Europeans view a child as an additional burden and they choose to have fewer. They choose to have a better standard of living as opposed to having many kids, unlike Africa where a family living in deplorable conditions but with many