The global fertility rate is falling
The Hacker News comment section tends to be factual, rational, and logical.<p>So - this may be out of place, but here goes.<p>When making decisions about whether or not to have children, we operate in a state of partial information.  (This is of course true of all decisions.)<p>I would like to contribute a bit of information.<p>I&#x27;m 66, and have three children and four grandchildren.  My adult children are the most wonderful people I know, and it is comforting to be aware that we will be part of each others&#x27; lives forever.  I spent a lot of time in assisted living facilities with my mother as her health failed, and I saw a lot of old people in those facilities with no one to visit them.  It is comforting to know that I will not spend my final years in loneliness and isolation.<p>Our grandchildren are an unalloyed joy.  We have two 3-year-old identical twin grand-daughters, and they are working their way through the nuances and finer points of grammar.  It is indescribably adorable to see their efforts at expressing their detailed and elaborate thoughts.  My grandsons are seriously into aviation, and I&#x27;ve become the go-to aerodynamics consultant.  Our four-year-old asked me with great seriousness, &quot;Grand-dad, why is the horizontal stabilizer always shorter than the wings?&quot;  Another time, the family was at the beach.  He, his dad, and I were looking out at the ocean.  He asked, &quot;What are waves?&quot;  Darn good questions!<p>No rose-colored glasses fantasy here:  I&#x27;ve found that your children can break your heart and devastate you just as well as bring you unfathomable joy.  My daughter (a black-belt IP lawyer now), when she was about four, wandered off in a crowded video game arcade, and we searched through the crowds for her for about ten minutes, with growing panic and horror.  We found her and all was fine.  Fact is, if you love someone as much as you end up loving your children and grandchildren, their decisions and choices will have profound effects on you.  My therapist observes that you are only as happy as your least happy child.<p>So, the decision about whether to start trying to have a family is a BIG-ASS decision, with life-long consequences.  I highly recommend it.