{UAH} Viewpoint: Changing the world is more important than changing nappies

Viewpoint: Changing the world is more important than changing nappies

• 26 November 2016
 
• From the sectionMagazine

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Image copyrightCORINNE MAIER

French author Corinne Maier has two children but cannot wait for the second to become independent. She argues that adults are so obsessed with children - and so exhausted by the effort of looking after them - that they have no energy left for anything else.

It's frightful, how many of us there are! Planet Earth has a human population of 7.5 billion. In the year 2100, there will be 11 billion of us. How will the planet be able to feed all of these people?

Facing this human wave, the media is for the first time showing a hint of worry - even in France, a champion of pro-birth policies, where the media are most definitely pro-baby.

We live in an child-obsessed society. The child is considered a guarantee of happiness, of personal development, and even of social status.

Those who are child-free (there's no equivalent term in French) are described as selfish and suspected of being bad citizens. Many of them feel pressure to justify themselves: "I can't have any, but I love children." To which I hasten to reply, just to spice up the conversation: "I have some, but have reasons to hate children."

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