Family has become harder and more expensive than ever before. The New York Times recently reported that based on the surveyed adults between the ages of 20 to 45 who were parents or planned to be, they discovered interesting trends. One in four had fewer children. Or expected that during their lifetimes they would have fewer children than they considered to be within the range of ideal. Economic concerns were foremost among the reasons that they either fell short or believed that in the future they would fall short of what they considered ideal. Over the past few years, the joint economic committees social Capital Project has been documenting trends in what we refer to as our Association Al life as americans. The web of social relationships for which we has americans pursue various endeavors. Our families, communities, friendships, religious congregations. A critical source of meaning and social capital is, of course, the family. In fact, it is the central set of head waters for social