Families-building block of society or threat to individual liberty?

I ran across this on a blog, I'm not familiar with Laura Ingram but I like these two passages that are quoted here, particularly the second.

Laura Ingraham states:

“These days, having such a large family earns you strange glances, shocked reactions, and castigations from environmentalists and anti-population growth wackos. Somehow, ‘being fruitful and multiplying’ is considered self-indulgent by those who put a high value on attaining a certain lifestyle. (These people consider it selfish for adults to devote themselves to supporting a large family, but it is apparently unselfish to spend your money on a lifestyle made up of frequent and exotic vacations, state-of-the-art gadgets, spa treatments, golf lessons, club memberships, boarding schools, and fancy summer camps. If you can follow that logic, please explain it to me.)”

The modern mind does not view families as the fundamental building block of a free society but rather a threat to individual liberty. That’s because service to others is viewed as enslaving, while service to self is the highest ideal. We know the opposite is true…
…families are actually quite liberating. The stronger your family is, the more independent you can be. A family that sticks together and helps each other is more likely to survive economic downturns, less likely to need government-provided health care, and less likely to need day care. Its children will be better prepared for school, and its grandparents will be better prepared for retirement. At every stage of life, its members will have more freedom — and be less dependent on government or other large institutions — than people who lack family support. So if we really want to empower the average person, the best thing we can do is strengthen families.