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Saturday, June 21, 2008

birth control

This is an interesting idea, I copied the whole post here(It's also linked in the title) because it's a short one. What he says makes sense to me, anyone agree?

Large families are best birth control
Posted in Catholic and Protestant, Church and state, Democrats, Faith and Politics, Gay Marriage, Marriage, Republicans by admin at June 20th, 2008
The news from a Massachusetts high school is that as many as seventeen female students may have had a pact that resulted in their becoming pregnant while in school. There is a flurry of response to this from a psychologist who suggested that the girls wanted to know they were human in a techno world to a Planned Parenthood type who railed at the predominantly Catholic school district for declining to provide birth control in the school.
I won’t bother raising the question of hoe school dispensed birth control pills would have helped girls who made a pact to become pregnant.
My wife Becky, mother of our eight children, suggested this explanation: that girls who grow up in small families with few or no other children, might become pregnant for two reasons - one, because there aren’t enough babies around. They desire to be close to a baby, like most people do. They long for that real human connection with a baby that they can share their lives with and that share some of their characteristics. Two, they don’t understand the extent of responsibility having a child is - precisely because there are so few babies around them. So, in their minds having a baby is like getting a puppy or kitten.
Becky went on to say that she thinks large families are the best teen contracpetive. First, the girls have babies around them, not their own, their little brothers and sisters. She was number two in a family of five and she had three babies beneath her to cuddle, play with and practice being the mommy of. The genius was that she could hand him back to her mother when she ran out of ideas or was overwhelmed. By the time she’s in her teens and could get pregnant, her older siblings are married and having baby nieces and nephews. Secondly, she knows first hand the mamouth resposnsibility that having a child is. She observes her mom (and Dad) working long days, sleepless nights, harried schedules, sickness, diapers, puke and all the rest that comes with the glorious gift of human life.
Our girls each have seven siblings, and all but one has cared for babies (and she’ll hopefully have a few nieces and nephews to take care of). They’re high in demand as baby sitters in our neighborhood and at church. They each know what a wonderful joy, and what hard work a baby is.
Yesterday one of our teen-aged daughters said, “I want to have babies, but I want to get married first. And before that, I want to finish my education and explore the world and do the things I want to do. Then, I’ll start looking at getting married and then I’ll have my children.”
I told Becky that she has really great insight: a large family is the best teen contraceptive there is.

8 comments:

Jamie said...

i'd have to agree also, although as with anything there are exceptions to the rule.

Sue said...

Yes, having a large family may frighten the child in the family thinking that kids are a lot of work and they may only want 1 just to say they had a child. I think if I came from a large family it would scare me to think about having kids. I would have had my fill of kids running around by the time it was time for me to have kids.

When I was a kid I lived with a family that took in other people's kids. Yes, it was nice having them all around, but then again you had no privacy or quiet time alone. There were 2 kids of their own, 3 cousins that moved in, plus my brother and I, so add it up, 7 kids total. Way to many kids for me, LOL. We were always fighting with each other. We blamed each other for starting trouble or blaming them to get out of trouble. That was the only good thing about being in a large family. It's not for me, that's for sure.

sajmom said...

It wasn't exactly that having a large family would frighten you into not having kids. That could be part of it, but it's not the point they were making. I had an intense need to be a mother. I did a lot of babysitting and when Claire was born I took care of her quite a bit too. Without those, maybe I would have fallen into pregnancy much earlier (and before I was truly ready)trying to fill that need to mother someone. I've said before that I don't think our society is very child-friendly. Chidldren are meant to be a basic part of life-not hidden away or segregated until they are old enough not to bother anyone.
Again, just my thoughts.

sajmom said...

Also, having a kid just to say you had one? They would see not just hte amount of work that goes into it, but also the huge rewards. They were saying that teens would get to be around babies and children but when it gets overwhelming, when they can't handle the responsibility anymore,,,,, there are parents to hand them over to. Understanding both sides to it, the teens are more willing to wait until they are in a stable relationship and are more mature themselves.
(I'm not saying this is always the problem, As Jamie said, of course there are always exceptions.

ADP said...

I must be the exception cause I really didn't understand the amount of work involved until I had my own. Not really. But I always knew I wanted to be a mother--that was very important to me.

Jamie said...

and on a side note...that last quote from that teenager kinda gets on my nerves..only b/c i'm bias! i think society needs to get over the fact that people don't get married as much anymore before they have kids and put an emphasis on "committed" relationships! =) i mean, society is mad because people get divorced so quickly and now they're mad b/c people aren't jumping into marriage!?!?!?

Sue said...

I too, also, did a lot of babysitting while growing up. I also was responsible for my brother while my mom was a single parent working. I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a mother and housewife, but as Alanna said, I didn't realize how much work it is to rear children, until you have your own. It is so much easier to watch someone else's kids and protect them from harms way, than it is your own, who sometimes fight you every step of the way.

sajmom said...

Oh, I don't think anyone completely realizes how much work it is to have kids until they have their own. No matter how much babysitting you do or siblings you watch, there is so much more involved when you are COMPLETELY responsible for another human being.