Yes, it IS an American thing. As I said, no choice in the matter!
I am American and it has not been my thing....what a sad thread.
Let us face reality...until women realize that the greatest job they can have is wife and motherhood, nothing changes. Not only the greatest job but the very hardest of jobs...raising children is a least desired position today, yet so crucial to raising up children of character and dignity.
Too many would rather the easy glamorous way out..a childless life. Indulging in every whim..but the whims lessen and the glamour fades along with age, and what are they left with? To die alone and unrewarded, unfulfilled, and to have done nothing for the betterment of humanity...sad...depressing...lonesome end.
No, I would advise marriage and devotion and family centering...do not abandon parents, parents do not abandon children...I despise the selfish baby boomer generation who have thrown their children out of the nest and selfishly designated their mid to later years as “our time”....nothing is more rewarding than remaining a close family and helping one another through life...multi-generational families will succeed, all others will not.
Yes, the baby boomers are, for the most part, left to themselves to gaze at the giant redwoods, dreaming of their youth, wondering why their children have abandoned them as they slowly fade away...having contributed nothing to the world, to humanity, to anything at all...and with a complete and utter disregard for their own progeny to come.