The New Years Eve Dr. Phil show (number 1313) presented the view of motherhood as absolute personal choice and absolute personal responsibility.
The show started with reports of two people arrested for spanking other people’s kids in public, but moved quickly to the subject of motherhood as a choice that brings responsibilities.
One mother, Maria, decided to give custody of her children to their father so she could pursue her lifetime dream of travel and writing a book. Dr. Phil presented the view of having a baby as a contract, because the baby is brought into the world “involuntarily” so the parent agrees to be completely responsible for the baby.
Then the show presented a fifteen year old girl who says she wants to have ten children. Her parents won’t let her date until age 16. Dr. Phil did the math, which says that raising ten kids would cost $1.4 million. The girl also wants to go to drama school. Dr. Phil pointed out that in New York actors starting out scrap for jobs and may make less than $25000 a year. I wonder what soap opera actors make; soap opera is grueling work; I know that from having worked on a set in the 1970s.
Dr. Phil had the girl spend a day with a family with four children, playing “The Baby Borrowers”.
Of course, there is a crowd that preaches about “demographic winter” and says that people are economically disincentivized to have children or particularly large families. There is also a question of filial responsibility, especially relevant for the childless and for smaller families. Do adult children have an ethical and legal obligation to support their parents – not a choice? In 28 states the law says that they do. Dr. Phil has never covered that topic as far as I know.