First it was zero population growth. Stop the human explosion.
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Then came the birth dearth. There were even predictions that one-quarter of Baby Boomers would never have kids at all, says the Census Bureau.
But an aging population confounded the experts and started having babies. Startling numbers of them.
Now, in some circles, a strange phenomenon is springing forth. Although the latest baby boomlet has skidded to a halt in hard times, many families are having three children. Sometimes more.
”I think it`s kind of the new fad number,” says Laurel Gude, 34, who had three kids in less than four years. The eldest is 6.
At her children`s preschool, 20 to 25 of the 120 families with children enrolled have three or more kids.
You can tell these parents by the sound effects and their uncommon dress and behavior.
In the grocery, just look for the person rocking the groceries-in the cart or in the bag, doesn`t matter. ”It`s hysterical. Automatic reflex,”
says Kathy Kelly, 32, a pre-nursing student, Avon saleswoman and mother of four.
Still, three-plus kid families are bucking the trend-the average number of children per woman nationwide is 2.1. Birth rates have fallen in the nation for the first time in four years, according to the latest figures from the National Center for Health Statistics.
”It`s medieval in this day and age to have that many children,” says Nhu Miller, 44, a writer and a mother of four. At the same time, she says, she sees them everywhere.
There has been a tiny blip up in the numbers of siblings being born:
– Women having their third, fourth and fifth children rose by 4, 5 and 7 percent nationwide from 1987 to 1988 and again from 1988 to 1989, says the center. The figures for 1990 are not yet available, though total births went up 4 percent.
– The number of triplets and bigger multiple births continued to rise substantially, increasing 17 percent from 1988 to 1989.
– Multiple births of all kinds went up 6 percent in 1989. It was the biggest ratio per 1,000 babies (23) in more than 30 years. Multiple births have been increasing since the early `70s, largely because of fertility drugs, says Stephanie Ventura of the center.
Why bigger families now? Parents are scratching their heads.
”It is quite possible that our generation-the legendary Baby Boom generation-is finally settling down, maybe,” Gude says.
Many parents came from big families themselves. Many are having children late, and that means now.
”There`s a little bit of a change in values,” says Gitta Howie, 33, whose three children are 6 and younger. ”Maybe the `80s generation is a little bit less me-oriented. There`s a change away from a more materialistic lifestyle. Having more than two children definitely makes you choose between human and materialistic values.”
Arlene Skolnick, a research psychologist at the University of California at Berkeley, has her own theories.
Skolnick, the author of ”Embattled Paradise: The American Family in an Age of Uncertainty” (Basic Books), rejects ideas that link the breakdown of the family with selfish individuality. ”The notion of the Me Generation was exaggerated in the first place.”
Indeed, psychological change has occurred since the `50s, she says. Education levels have increased. People have become more introspective and more psychologically minded.
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But Skolnick says it was a stagnating economy that made people delay marriage and have fewer children. While the rich got richer, middle-class families had to work more just to stay even.
The trend to three-plus children probably has more to do with people`s stage of life than anything else, she says.
”People are feeling the clock running out.”