British people are more tolerant of dogs than my child

The birthrate in England and Wales is at an all-time low. To keep populations steady, each woman needs to give birth to two children. The current UK rate is 1.

44. Some experts say this is a crisis that will have a detrimental impact on our society, with fewer people to contribute to the economy. Others believe a decreased population will benefit the planet by slowing down climate change.



Still others argue that migration will fill the gap. From the rising cost of living to shifting attitudes towards family and parenthood, why are we having fewer babies? Millennial Zing Tsjeng, fertility expert Professor Geeta Nargund, economist Hamish McRae and mother of one Rhiannon Picton-James share their perspectives. if(window.

adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "inread-hb-ros-inews"}); }The birth rate is plummeting.

With the way we treat children – and mothers – in this country, it’s no wonder.Nearly half of NHS maternity wards and one in five primary schools are classed as “inadequate”, the childcare system is failing and crucially, in my experience – many people in this country just do not like children.In 2010, Sir Al Aynsley Green, our first ever children’s commissioner, said England was one of the most child-unfriendly places in the world but I think it has got worse.

Britain’s tolerance for children seems at an all time low. On a recent trip to London, people pushed past me, barged into me, all while I tried to navigate the city with a small four-year-old in front of me. It didn’t matter.

Commuters would rather body-check a mother and child than wait another three minutes for the next Tube. A coffee shop I walked past advertised a sign which read “no prams”.if(window.

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adverts) { window.adverts.addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l1"}); }It’s incredibly isolating.

Research suggests 80 to 90 per cent of new mothers feel lonely, and I don’t think that is any surprise, given how much of a burden we mothers are made to feel by society, our culture, and our governments. We receive this messaging constantly.If you dare to leave the house with your child or baby, shop assistants are rude to you for no reason, people bark at you to move out of their way in the supermarket aisles instead of simply going around you, and all I see in local community pages online are people moaning about children in public spaces.

I think that Covid had a role to play. During lockdown, people had a break from seeing children around and they got used to it. If Victorians expected children to be “seen but not heard”, then today’s Britons expect children to be neither seen nor heard, and to stay indoors until their 18th birthday.

Whenever I speak about this, as I have previously on BBC Woman’s Hour, people like to contact me to tell me either that they’ve found it to be the case too, or to say something along the lines of, “Well, I chose not to have children so I shouldn’t have to put up with yours”, or other variations of this sentiment.If you choose not to have children (as many people are, in record numbers) it does not mean that you can move through the world expecting to have every space you enter free of them.I would even argue that if you cannot cope with the noise of children in public places, then you are the one who should not be in public.

The fall in births also coincides with the boom in dog owners, and it seems to me that Britons prefer them now. I’ve seen doggy gender reveal parties, dogs having photoshoots with Santa for family Christmas cards and cafes serving doggy ice creams. I had an invitation for a child-free wedding where the bride had her dog attend.

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addToArray({"pos": "mpu_tablet_l2"}); }One man in my community’s Facebook page complained about seeing children in a local coffee shop – he said that he would rather use a chair that a dog had been sitting in than “a snotty nosed child”. Really? A dog rubbing its genitals on a fabric seat? That’s the chair user you would rather follow?Once, a woman walking her dog on the high street in Wales insisted I switch sides of the pavement with her as I pushed my pram – because her dog couldn’t walk next to the road. She wanted me to push my baby on the outside of the pavement, so she could protect her dog, who she thought was more important than a human child.

I stopped for her to walk around me, but she wouldn’t.Not to mention, children’s play spaces, youth centres and parks are closing down all over the country. Where are we supposed to go? A staggering 793 playgrounds in the UK have closed in a decade, and I honestly don’t know what we’re supposed to do or where we’re supposed to go anymore.

It’s been enough to put my husband and I off having a second.Rhiannon Picton-James is a freelance journalistPerspectives: One topic, multiple viewsJust readsquareRhiannon Picton-JamesBritish people are more tolerant of dogs than my childRead nextsquareProfessor Geeta NargundI’m a fertility expert, this is why people aren’t having childrenRead nextsquareZing TsjengMillennials are realising children are just not worth it – emotionally or financially.