BilikFamily.com

Natalists - Two independent websites I visited recently both pointed me to a story in Tuesday's New York Times about what it calls 'natalists'. It seems like a continuation of what I wrote about earlier regarding what the LA Times called 'exurban communities'. NYT Op-ed columnist David Brooks writes:

There is a little-known movement sweeping across the United States. The movement is "natalism."

All across the industrialized world, birthrates are falling - in Western Europe, in Canada and in many regions of the United States. People are marrying later and having fewer kids. But spread around this country, and concentrated in certain areas, the natalists defy these trends.

They are having three, four or more kids. Their personal identity is defined by parenthood. They are more spiritually, emotionally and physically invested in their homes than in any other sphere of life, having concluded that parenthood is the most enriching and elevating thing they can do. Very often they have sacrificed pleasures like sophisticated movies, restaurant dining and foreign travel, let alone competitive careers and disposable income, for the sake of their parental calling.

In a world that often makes it hard to raise large families, many are willing to move to find places that are congenial to natalist values. The fastest-growing regions of the country tend to have the highest concentrations of children. Young families move away from what they perceive as disorder, vulgarity and danger and move to places like Douglas County in Colorado (which is the fastest-growing county in the country and has one of the highest concentrations of kids). Some people see these exurbs as sprawling, materialistic wastelands, but many natalists see them as clean, orderly and affordable places where they can nurture children.

He goes on to discuss some political consequences:

You can see surprising political correlations. As Steve Sailer pointed out in The American Conservative, George Bush carried the 19 states with the highest white fertility rates, and 25 of the top 26. John Kerry won the 16 states with the lowest rates. "Democrats swept the largely childless cities - true blue locales like San Francisco, Portland, Seattle, Boston and Manhattan have the lowest percentages of children in the nation - but generally had poor showings in those places where families are settling down, notably the Sun Belt cities, exurbs and outer suburbs of older metropolitan areas."

Dunkin' Donuts - In more local news I had recently mentioned the unfathomable domination, nay, saturation of Dunkin' Donuts in southern NH. The Nashua Telegraph wrote a few days ago about DD buying a large portion of the local Quikava franchise with plans to turn them into DD's. With a bit of searching I found an interesting story at Fast Company entitled "It's Not About the Doughnuts". For a company whose tag line was once "time to make the donuts", they have transformed themselves into a company where 57% of sales are of beverages. The rest is largely bagels, muffins, and egg sandwiches. Ironically who is DD focused on? Not Crispy Creme but rather Starbucks, McDonalds, and convenient stores. Crispy Creme's sales are 98% donuts, a "one trick pony" from DD's perspective, especially vulnerable in today's 'low-carb' craze.

Home - I realize that many of the postings have been mentions of news. This is a time of year when there isn't that much going on. The girls are in school. One night a week they have gymnastics, another choir practice, another CCD. One day a week Michelle takes the boys to the YMCA while she teaches her step class. On another she takes them to Milford's tot drop-in. On the weekends I take Claire to piano lessons and Michelle and I do split shifts taking the girls to Mass. Lather, rinse, repeat. Domestic cruise control. It's hard to tell what minutia of home life is worthy of writing up. At least no one is sick... yet.

Little details - Tomorrow the Odyssey goes in for very minor repairs (knock on wood). I'll drop off the Christmas cards at the post office. Our company will have a luncheon at Lilac Blossom. Then, at last, the weekend...

Lamby - Did I mention that we haven't seen Michael's signature stuffed lamb since Sunday? So far, he hasn't mentioned him.

4 years - I didn't realize it but yesterday marked four years of web writing. Check the calendar. Granted, I started small, but it's when we knew the twins would be arriving soon.