Anymore, it’s not uncommon to see a world news story on plummeting birth rates. Women are having fewer babies. Men are producing less sperm. And countries are breaking records for declining fertility rates, leading to a global crisis.

Yet in America, some still see having children as a low priority. In fact, the same could be said of grandchildren. A recent Pew Research report shows that 46% of parents say it’s not important for their adult children to have kids. When I saw that stat this week, I had to reread it. It wasn’t believable.

But as Keith Simon observes, parents now want their adult kids to be financially independent far more than they want grandbabies. They’ve subscribed to the common modern notion that money, possessions, and a career—with child-free fun on the weekends—leads to lasting happiness. But does it?

According to Simon, marriage and family aren’t obstacles to happiness. Instead, the opposite is true. “If parents wish for their adult children to be happy,” Simon writes, “the data suggests they should encourage them to prioritize marriage and children over financial independence and career advancement, when given the choice.”