My youngest child (7) is crazy about babies. We can’t pass by a magazine rack, a TV commercial for baby products, a display of baby clothing, never mind a real live baby in church or on the street, without pausing to ooh and ah, admire or coo.
The other day, I posted a comment on a Facebook photograph featuring three of my beautiful married nieces with their three beautiful babies. Much to my surprise, one of my FB "friends" (actually now former) immediately posted a response to my comment, asking me if babies were “good” and hinting obliquely about overpopulation, suffering children etc. A subsequent message revealed that no one should have more than three children (and this person knows I have seven—tact apparently not a strong suit).
This person needed convincing of what my 7-year-old takes for granted: babies are good; after all, without them, we wouldn’t have much of a future. Even Hollywood celebrities seem fond of them; it’s rather lovely to see them having babies and being proud of it. Which gives one reassurance that our culture, dark and nihilistic though it tends to be at times, has not quite yet arrived at Huxley’s Brave New World attitude toward maternity.