“What you’re doing is as extravagant as keeping a pet tiger,” said my brother. “Having three kids is unheard of here.” My wife, our kids and I were spending a month in Austria, where I’m originally from and where he still lives.
He wasn’t entirely serious. Big families, until recently, weren’t that rare in Europe. Take my brother’s and mine: There were five kids when we grew up. All of them are half-brothers and half-sisters, but still. All five now have one or two kids of their own. The difference in fertility rate between Europe and the United States isn’t that big: 1.62 births per woman in America, 1.33 in Austria. Contrast that to Korea, which has the world’s lowest fertility rate at 0.75. I’m not sure if the West’s fertility rate being below replacement level is something to worry about, since it’s not self-evident that a declining population is a net negative.
By comparing me to the Tiger King, my brother was alluding to the often-expressed opinion that Europe isn’t as family friendly, or at least not as convenient for larger families, as the United States. This is only partly true. My impression was that on average, businesses like restaurants are slightly more family friendly than in America. It’s true that food in the grocery store is packaged with singles or small families in mind. This isn’t much of a problem since the density of stores is so high that having to go shopping more often isn’t a big deal. We had one downstairs from the apartment we rented. America has the biggest advantage when it comes to getting around: You just can’t beat cars. The easiest way toget somewhere in Vienna is public transit, but taking a tram or subway with three small kids is definitely more stressful than packing them into a car and driving. Driving and parking a car in Vienna is much, much harder than in any American city.
Nehaveigur 