Psychology Today may have the answer to why affluent parents in the San Francisco South Bay are having so many children.

Kids are driving the status engines for families to such an extent that just having them is becoming a status symbol, the human equivalent of a limited edition Hermes satchel. In a consumer culture where raising a child is a very costly enterprise, kids are the ultimate acquisition. One new mini-trend identifies the wealthy (with incomes of about $250,000) as having more children (2.3) than the middle class (1.8) — slightly more, even, than lower-class families. And the very wealthiest have the most children by far, averaging 2.9 kids.

And insight into the truth of parenting from child psychologist David Anderegg:

Parenting is not an engineering task, it’s an endurance task. It requires a high tolerance for boredom. Engineering is based on the idea that if you do something right the first time, you don’t have to do it again.

Parenting is a problem to be solved daily. It’s a repetitive, quotidian task. That’s what maximizes parent-child interaction and persuades kids they are loved.

Seeing kids as well-designed products is a disease of really smart people. They feel they have to make child-rearing a task worthy of their time.

Maybe I’m not cut out to be a parent….

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