Running out of time: charli XCX, Children & the Environment
On the 7th June, rave diva turned pop star, Charli xcx, released her album Brat.
Sea levels are rising. Charli has turned up the heat with the album of the summer/winter. Her confessional song ‘I think about it all the time’ captures the inner conflict and uncertainty she faces surrounding having kids. The pressure is real. She thinks about it all the time.
Currently, we are all united by the fact that the climate crisis is threatening our ability to get “bad tattoos” and cruise down “winding roads doing manual drive”. Whether or not to have kids has been highly debated in recent years, with philosophers like Chad Vance frankly stating that it is “eco-gluttonous” to do so. However, philosophers Anca Gheaus and Luara Ferracioli insist that prospective parents have a duty to ensure the next generation has access to “adequate life prospects”. How can we look children in the eye if we are passing on a limited world to them? But is it enough for Charli to be ‘mother’ of one Brat album? Or does she need a real-life, kicking, screaming one of her own?
After many years of producing ‘Club classics’, Charli sees her life branching out before her. Should she succumb to the age-old narrative of settling down? Or continue living her party girl lifestyle? Charli explores the duplicity of choice between becoming a mother and living her life. The reality is that women can’t have it all. But we’ve usually run out of time before this is realised. For women, the societal expectation to have children makes this even more confusing. It’s unlikely that Charli’s getting “early nights in white sheets with lace curtains” when all this is on her mind! Understood as nurturing caregivers at best, and reproductive vessels at worst, motherhood has been the assumed role. We also know that generally, their old lives are abandoned after having kids - impossible to live because of a lack of time. Time after time after time, women are told that they need to have kids before it’s too late. Everything from Bridget Jones to Sakaya Murata’s Earthlings hammers this home.
The opening minor chords of ‘I think about it all the time’ create a bittersweet atmosphere that set the stage for Charli’s heartfelt confessions. She’s pensieve and unsure. Her frankness creates the feeling that you’re lying on Charli’s bed with her, and she’s sharing her innermost thoughts, leaving you waiting on her every word.
I think about it all the time
That I might run out of time
But I finally met my baby
And a baby might be mine
'Cause maybe one day I might
If I don't run out of time
As a confused girl in the world, the inner conflict is easy to resonate with. How can anyone choose between living the life that they love without kids or having children and letting go of so much? In verse one, Charli fleshes out a charming scene where she meets her friend’s baby.
How sublime
What a joy, oh my, oh my
Standing there
Same old clothes she wore before, holding her child, yeah
She's a radiant mother and he's a bеautiful father
And now they both know thesе things that I don't
She captures the awe, love, and excitement that she feels. Wouldn’t it be lovely to become a radiant mother? Listening to this verse conjures images of two parents, totally in love, cradling their newborn in a park as the sun covers them in a golden blanket.
But that beautiful park won’t last much longer at the rate the icebergs are melting. Unbearably hot nights listening to our Kmart fans whir and once-recognisable beaches eroded by furious winds. It doesn't all exactly scream “perfect time to have kids!” Charli might run out of time. Maybe she already has. Vance notes that because each person contributes to excess resource consumption and carbon emissions, the harm that a child will bring to the environment outweighs any other good.
Charli has a point when she says:
'Cause my career feels so small
In the existential scheme of it all
With the amount of discourse online, in schools, and in everyday conversations surrounding the climate crisis, it’s hard to know if your daily disposable coffee cup should be replaced with a reusable one, let alone whether or not it’s inherently evil to birth a child. But maybe Charli’s career feels small because she hasn’t had kids. Clearly there is more to this puzzle.
Gheaus provides us with an alternative perspective, noting that prospective parents have a moral duty to ensure that the next generation are also in positions where they can maintain a stable population.
Charli confesses,
And I'm so scared I'm missin' out on something
What about becoming a radiant mother? Sonny Angels just aren’t enough! Charli believes that having kids provides incredible value to society.
But Vance insists that no one has the right to parenthood. Particularly in cases where children could be harmed, this seems fair. No child should have to grow up in extreme weather conditions, eating dystopian meals. Muscle Chef style, shrivelled chicken with slimy greens is too far.
Yet Charli asks, Would it give my life a new purpose? And having kids would. There’s certainly more of an incentive to be more sustainable if someone you care about will outlive you. But isn’t the love Charli has for her friends’ baby enough of a reason to minimise harm to the environment? Surely we don’t all need to have brats of our own just to care. Interestingly, philosophers believe that the deepness and robustness of parental love, particularly procreative-parenting, is established simply because the parents have brought this child into the world (from literally nothing (ew)). Charli may love her friends’ baby, but wouldn’t make the same sacrifices for that child. Whereas, she knows she’d sacrifice her freedom for her own child.
Would it make me miss all my freedom?
Sorry girl, it’s unlikely you’ll be performing another Boiler Room set with an infant. So likely yes. Charli sees her life branching out before her, ripe with opportunity. If she waits too long to choose one, they will drop and rot at her feet (right to the core). There’s a sickly stench oozing from the macerated fruit that the climate crisis has rotted. Our freedoms are being inhibited anyway. Gheaus would remind Charli that the deep and robust love parents have for their children, plus the duty we have to provide “adequate life prospects” for future generations justifies her having kids. She’d also acknowledge Charli’s uncertainties—more children does mean more carbon.
Nothing lasts forever. Whether it’s relationships, our ability to have children, or our society as we know it. This is neither comforting, nor helpful, but Charli’s openness and vulnerability in ‘I think about it all the time’ provide us with an insightful dissection of gendered expectations, existential uncertainty, and tender desires. After snottily sobbing in full starfish position on the floor of my mouldy sharehouse, I too, think about it all the time. Looking back at captured moments of my family and I from my infanthood, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want to recreate that. I’m paralysed, unsure whether to maintain hope that the world might magically be fixed, or if I should get on with the grieving of potential futures. For now, let’s listen to Brat and be comforted by the fact that Lorde and Charli finally worked it out on the remix.
Xxx