The Death of Family
Colleen Campbell at the Ethics and Public Policy Center has a fascinating article up about the uproar over WNBA Star Candace Parker’s decision to start a family at the age of 22:
But Parker’s pregnancy was not greeted with the same approval and tolerance that many of today’s child-bearing sexagenarians and single mothers by choice enjoy when they form their families. Instead, Parker was blasted by fans and pundits for becoming a mother at age 22. Critics bemoaned her selfishness in putting maternal ambitions ahead of her team’s 2009 season prospects. Others lamented her foolishness for starting a family when she should be living a strings-free existence oriented around her glamorous career.
By the standards of some, 22 might be a bit young to start a family. However, unlike Nadya Suleman, who brought eight children into the world to add to her already large brood without the influence of a father and without any clear means for caring for them other than the fleeting media bonanza surrounding their initial appearance, Parker is happily married and has a stable career. Campbell points out that Parker is grounded in reality and her emotional desires and that her situation is not all that unusual:
For her part, Parker told the Los Angeles Times that she wanted her children to grow up witnessing the athletic career of their young mother rather than arriving after it ends. Although she believes she can return to basketball as a mother, Parker said, “The biggest thing for me is not a matter of if or when [I return] but of coming back with a good balance in my life.”
Parker’s view of motherhood as “a blessing” that will “make me a fuller, happier person” is not as unusual as the media hoopla over her pregnancy suggests. As The Wall Street Journal recently reported, the National Center for Health Statistics has released data showing that the mean age at which American women bear their first babies decreased for the first time since the collection of such data began in 1968. The decline in age among first-time mothers was slight – from 25.2 years in 2005 to 25.0 years in 2006, the latest year for which numbers are available – but the biggest uptick in first-time births was found among women in their early 20s.
It would seem, then, that with this decline in childbearing age that Parker would be held up as an example. Instead, she is the subject of scorn while the Suleman freakshow takes up most of the media’s attention. I am a supporter of individual rights, but it must also be accepted that people inevitably end up in relationships with other people and the world at-large. Society has moved too far afield in this regard, placing the individual’s self-fulfillment above all elese without any regard for others involved.
