Can a robot save the birthrate, and convince childless couples to have kids?
Japan, as you might know, has not been reproducing at a replacement rate (2.1 births per woman), and that has a number of social scientists on edge. And so, a robotic baby that cries and interacts somewhat like a real baby -- but looks a little like a giant Tamagotchi -- has been created to convince childless couples to have a kid. The hope is that Yotaro will charm the pants off these couples, and get that birthrate going back north. There are likely skeptics.
When a couple has a baby, their marriage can still stay strong.
A growing stack of research reveals that happy marriages take a nosedive when a couple becomes a family. Thanks to sleepless nights, new expectations, and the demands of bringing up baby while holding down a job, 30 to 50 percent of all new parents feel as distressed as couples already in therapy for marriage problems. When a couple has a baby, their marriage can still stay strong. Here's how.
Per the gossip rags, Mariah Carey has become impregnated with a baby by Nick Cannon. Like Michael Jackson and Lisa Marie Presley, lots of people thought that this marriage wouldn't last.
She's been an TV show host, an infomercial pitch-gal, a Playmate, and an internet icon. But now Cindy Margolis wants to be known as a spokeswoman for infertility. She has written a new book with the focus on her problems conceiving and how these pitfalls can be avoided.
What’s it really like to have a baby all by your lonesome? Not so lonesome after all, says Louise Sloan. "I was ready for kids at age 28—and well aware that women's fertility starts to plummet at 35. When I saw my doctor that fateful year, she asked me if I wanted children. "Yes," I replied. "Definitely." With a stern look, she snapped, "Well, you're not getting any younger!" Thanks for the news flash, I thought. What kind of idiot does she think I am? I was a romantic, procrastinating idiot, to be exact. Despite my clear intellectual understanding of the issues involved, it took me until age 38 before I seriously started thinking about single motherhood, and even then, I had to be dragged into it kicking and screaming by my biological clock, which was starting to sound more like a car alarm."
He wants kids—just not yet. How to handle the question of when to start a family.
I should have known. When you're 30 years old, like we are, and when you've been married three years, like we have, everything becomes about having a baby. No matter what we're talking about—our jobs, our friends, an upcoming vacation—reproduction is always just a free association away. It has even infiltrated our sex life: Yesterday, Emily confessed that her dirty thoughts about me now trigger a fantasy of me knocking her up.We both want a baby. If only we could agree on when. Jay Rosenshield writes about being a married man who's not ready to have a child.
