Redefining Success: The Blessings of Children | An Interview with Dr. Catherine Pakaluk

What does it mean to live a successful life? For the women featured in Hannah’s Children: The Women Quietly Defying the Birth Dearth, it means embracing the beauty and challenge of raising a large family. Economist, author, and mother of eight Dr. Catherine Pakaluk sheds light on college-educated women across diverse backgrounds choosing to raise large families in an era of declining birth rates. Through her research, Pakaluk reveals a worldview where children are embraced as these women’s purpose, their contribution, and their greatest blessing. Join this thought-provoking, faith-filled vision of family and our future with Catherine and HSLDA President, Jim Mason. They highlight the crucial role of the homeschooling movement, which enables families to educate their children affordably while fostering strong values at home. “The three biggest blessings that God wants to send us are children, good health, and prosperity. The Jewish woman I talked to said, ‘the tradition says that the biggest of these three is children. . .that God really wants to bless us.’ If you really believed that children were the greatest blessing that God could send you. . .you would arrange your life to have another child. . .they fit their careers and their professional work around their families rather than fitting their the timing of their children around their careers.”—Dr. Catherine Pakaluk