Megalodon
Silver Member
I was at Wally World in the frozen section... and this young girl is buying big bags of various frozen burritos.. so i think to myself "she really likes those"... so i say to her... "those must be good"...
She says "yeah they are pretty good but i am buying that many because i have 6 kids".
I am sure my smile weakened slightly out of surprise.
Generation time is more important to population growth than most people understand. Babies having babies is the model for rapid population growth. There are cultural factors that influence generation time. After the Irish potato famine for example, population growth in Ireland dropped dramatically - but not because the number of children born per female fell (it did slightly), but more because couples chose to delay the start of their families. I remember when our babies were born and we met people younger than us who were visiting their new grandchildren.