David Frum: New York Times article about 'the unspoken grief of never becoming a grandparent' gets mixed reaction

Frida Ghitis: When a society gives up on having children, it has given up on its future.

She says a recent New York Times article about the decline in the birthrate got a mixed reaction.

Ghitis says it's a problem so deep and all-encompassing that there are always going to be new dimensions.

Too many parents try to live their lives vicariously through their children.

Children do not owe their parents everything. Besides, many of us were forced to babysit our younger siblings. I had 18 years of watching my 3 younger siblings AND having to work in my mother’s day care center! My God, if I had had my own children I would have ended up spending my entire life raising children. My purpose in life is not to watch/raise children.

How is it that you “can’t” do something that has been done under more difficult circumstance billions of times? I am often told by younger people that the situation now is just too difficult, everything is too expensive, I just don't understand, I can't relate.

People have been through recessions, depressions, famines, wars, and catastrophes of all kinds and continued having children.