Let us not be judgmental while reading this article, but focus on the hard facts and observations!

I was on a work trip to Beijing, and somehow managing to survive in the city — where neither did I know their language, nor they knew mine.

As I was walking around the city, I saw a very beautiful lady, probably in her late 20s. She was very cute, pretty and beautiful (safe to say all women are 😄). But you know what was cuter, prettier and more beautiful — the puppy she was carrying in her arms. It was an adorable white puppy with lots of fur on his body. Around its neck was a pink colored handkerchief with red hearts printed on it. The puppy was so cute that I did not even look back at the very pretty lady.

But then walking alongside the lady, I saw a man — who must have been her partner — carrying a baby stroller which was surprisingly empty! I wondered what it was for if it was empty.

Later, when I googled it on internet, I found that the stroller was specifically meant for pets, and is called a pet stroller!

I was not at all bothered to find out that there is such a huge market for pet strollers these days. The point that kept pestering me was that whatever I had just seen, is it a hint of where we are heading into the future.

Will we really be seeing young couples buying more pet strollers than baby strollers in the near future?

When I spent some time reading key statistics about the country, I was shocked to find out that my observation was indeed part of a bigger trend! I try not to populate my articles with too many numbers, but here are a few points to corroborate my observations.

— China is experiencing the lowest human birth rate per 1000 people in the past 50 year, with the birth rate having declined by as much as 50% during the past 5 years itself.

— On the other hand, the pet population in China is increasing at a staggering pace has increased by more than 10% in the past one year alone.
 
— The pet industry market capitalization has increased almost 10 times in the past decade!

I tried to see similar trends for the USA but was somewhat relieved to see that although pet population is increasing, the human birth rate is almost stagnant.

The next day, I very hesitantly asked my office colleague about this over a dinner conversation — and she very patiently explained to me that indeed young millennials are not shying away from abandoning parenthood. In a struggle to establish themselves professionally and to achieve financial stability — things such as relationships, marriage, family and even parenthood often get left behind. One of the primary factors is also the highly toxic ‘996’ work culture that is so widely practiced in China, and many other southeast Asian countries.

https://medium.com/@thesilentmonk/996-and-karoshi-if-you-don-t-know-these-two-words-you-are-living-a-better-life-c62bbce2f7b9

Is this trend only restricted to China?

It would be wrong to say that the trend is limited to China. We do not need data to tell us what we already observe around us. We live in an age where you need to be lucky to be in a healthy and stable relationship. If we list the present-day priorities for young millennials — marriage might come way below, and parenthood might not even feature in that list.

And the young millennials have very well realized that parenthood is expensive. I remember one of my senior colleagues with three college going kids telling me — “I bet if kids would come with a price tag of the total amount of money we will be spending on them throughout their lifetime, many might not even have kids.”

I hate to agree, but what he said was true. I wonder if we might be moving towards a society where raising kids shall become a luxury that only the rich can afford.

Coming back to the comparison between the two kinds of strollers!

I have never had a pet, but I can understand why people want to have them. A pet, although cannot speak our language, they sure know how to reciprocate love. And at some level I am very happy to note that the world is becoming more humane at least towards their pet animals.

But whether the young couples choose between a pet stroller or a kid stroller — I believe it is a personal choice. The Silent Monk has himself made enough mistakes in life to learn that we should never pass judgement on other people.

If people want to have a kid stroller, it is their choice. If people want to have a pet stroller, it is their choice. If they want both or none, it is totally their choice. Period!

In the end, all that matters is that we should be happy, and our that happiness should not come at the cost of others.

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