Why were family's so big back in the day?

Question

Back in the day people would have like 20 kids, can anybody tell me why people would have so many family members, and then now people are only having like 2 to 3 kids. why are people not having so much kids anymore? I ask this question to some guy in the dollor store and he told me that back in the day most people didnt have televisions so the only entertaining thing was to have sex. Is he right?

Answer 1

There are several reasons.

Before the industrial revolution, and for many decades after that even, people lived rural lives and depended on agriculture and their own domestic skills for everything. Having lots of kids was beneficial for the whole family- more hands to work, and the higher chance that you would have some offspring live to adulthood. Now the majority of people live in crowded urban centers, and having too many kids is more of a burden than a help. However, there are still parts of the undeveloped world where the old ways of having large litters are still the norm.

People were simply expected to have kids. Nowadays, when couples get married they may decide to put off having children for a few years or simply not have kids at all. But "back in the day" women had to start popping out babies as soon as they were married, or society considered there was something wrong with them. Which is related to the next reason...

Since the equal rights movement for women and the popularization of birth controls like the pill and condoms, having sex no longer automatically means you are trying for a baby. With those contraceptives being widely available, individuals can now wait to have kids till they are ready to be parents.

Answer 2

Could be partly true. Lack of entertainment....
.also no birth control, simply Sex = Kids.
Also large families were used to help with the farm, or family business.
My Dad was from 10 children, Mom from 5. I only have 1 sister and 2 of my own children. Have a friend with 6...

Answer 3

Infant mortality was extremely high and in an agricultural society many hands were needed to take care of the farm. Sometimes you had to have 10 kids so that two of them would live long enough to take care of you in old age, provided you reached old age. Today with Social Security, retirement plans, unearned income from investments, there is not so much need for large families and with the world becoming so crowded no room for them. This doesn't stop some religions from still trying to out-breed each other, adding to the problem.

Answer 4

I think he's partly right, but back in the day when people just popped out kids without any worries, they had very hard labor intensive lives and it was a bonus to have many children to help raise crops and livestock, which was a source of food AND income for farmers. the more free labor you had, the more money and food you could put on the table. Larger families often had a very nice life compared to families who couldn't have more than a few kids.

Answer 5

There are a number of reasons. First, when we had a farm based society children would work on their family farm, so they were an asset. Also, many children died, so if you only had 2 or 3 you might lose them all. People lived in extended families, so children were needed to take care of parents.

Finally, reliable birth control is a very recent development. People did have unplanned children and it was a burder, particularly in urban areas.

Answer 6

my personal thought is that the kids were used on the farm to help make money. the more kids you have the more land you could work and the more you could get done and as the older moved out to start on their own you would more in line that would be at home to help you keep your farm going
just a thought tho

Answer 7

Kinda like prey animals do. The more u have the more chance u have of keeping them for a while