I'm fairly certain no one but me reads the large family stuff I post here, but some of it can be applied to smaller families and is really quite fascinating. As I've said before, the internet gives a constant bombardment of people who find it a selfish choice and feel you are depriving their offspring of nature's bounty. Apparently this man named Colin Brazier, a father-of-five, decided to go on the attack, and took five years to compile info and wrote a report. It claims that the middle-classes are made to feel guilty about the impact on the environment and the damage to their careers if they have large numbers of babies and that this "anti-natal" prejudice against large families is misplaced, however, and that young people who have lots of brothers and sisters grow up happier and better-adjusted than only children.
From one of the articles referring to that study I came across this quote, which I love:
"Each throw of the genetic dice is a new adventure, a fascinating individual, another sometimes tiresome, usually loveable bundle of strengths and weaknesses. I didn't plan to have so many; I just couldn't bear to stop." Cassandra Jardine
That is a good summation of why I always love having another child.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
7 comments:
I never really gave much thought to whether people with large families are "right" or "wrong..." The only family I think about sometimes are the Duggers but only b/c worry that something could happen to Mrs. Dugger. I usually conclude that thought with, "well, they seem to be levelheaded people and I'm sure they've considered that too and she must be in good health." And ultimately it is not my choice.
Anyway, I got off track. Honestly, the first time I found out that there was any kind of prejudice against large families is when you mentioned it a while ago on your blog. So I decided to do some thinking about it and here's what I've come up with...
The people who say that having a lot of kids is selfish are absolutely nuts. (assuming they have kids of their own) Every decision to have a child, whether it be one or 5, is selfish. And in this case, being selfish is not a bad thing. You are simply fulfilling a desire...pregnancy is only a choice you can make for yourself, nobody else. Is that not selfish?
Those people who criticize large families need to come up with a better reason...we are all selfish parasites on this earth!
Luckily for me, most of it seems to stay on the internet. In person I get, "Oh you have your hands full!" and "god bless you!" with an occasional "I couldn't do it!" or a "how do you do it!" I do worry about how this affects the kids to hear total strangers say this over and over I don't want them to feel like they are a burden.
It's selfish not to have kids also, not many people point that out as well. I think there are enough resources for us all on the planet, families of all sizes and incomes need to learn environmentalism. I read one article on a green site, I think tree huggger, where a mother of a large family talked about how she does all kinds of environmentally friendly stuff, probably more than 99% of us, and she is an outcast in the green community because nothing she ever does will outweigh her choice to have more than one or two children! Even the comments on the article were nasty. I think people are focusing on the wrong area. Birth control and education would go such a long way towards reducing the population in countries where it truly is a problem. So much farther than condeming people for a rare personal choice.
http://meaganfrancis.com/2008/07/30/mega-families-why-do-you-care/
One response to some of the large family bashing, with a couple bashing articles linked.
i know this is not my choice to make for you but i've found that i'm just better off not reading that stuff (in my case its peanut allergy hating)...there will always be people that disagree. i know what my beliefs are and i'm ready at any moment to defend my family...i just don't need to see it online where people tend to be more mean (since many of them are posting anonymously).
I don't really get the peanut allergy bashing-I mean, when you are just ignorant (literally ignorant, I'm not useing that as an insult) that's one thing, but once they understand that someone can DIE from it, you're just a total moron to think a food preference trumps that.
The topic seems to come up often on sites I frequent, probably because it's controversial so you get a lot of comments on it. And it's a topic I'm interested in, I like to read about how other families manage it. Because of that bashers are hard to avoid. I look at it as warnings of things that could go wrong if we don't handle ourselves right.
Post a Comment