catzmeow
Gold Member
- Banned
- #81
1) I don't see how it is pathetic
2) Humans don't have litters.. they have children not animals... they have families
3) It is inherently HARDER to raise more kids... but with commitment, strong values, etc a parent of 10 can be as good to their children as a parent of 1 can be to their single child
4) I do applaud ones who have more kids and do a good job raising them to be good adults. I would not approve ones that have multiple children or huge families and do not have the commitment necessary to that family. Ones who abuse their kids, ones that have them for additional entitlement benefits etc, those are the ones to withhold applause from. Not just simply because a couple choose to have a large family that they love and enjoy.
I lived and worked in Utah for 10 years. Utah has the largest average family sizes in the nation. I'd like to say that every family that large is functional, but we also had the highest rate of prescription drug abuse in the country. We used to refer to Prozac as "Sandy Candy," (Sandy was a well-to-do suburban area known for large mormon families), because so many of the moms of these big families were using prescription drugs to cope.
Would I ever force someone to limit the size of their family? NO. HOwever, I do believe that if families want to have this many children, they should be prepared to pay for the commensurate expenses of educating them, and the corresponding societal requirements. Our tax system is not set up to fund families of this size, for the most part, and everyone else ends up paying the financial cost of educating these children. It's hardly fair to the neighbors who choose to limit their family size. And frankly, I don't WANT to pay the expense of someone else's religious beliefs about having a big family. If you're doing it, you should be prepared for ALL of the expense it entails, including societal costs that normal families pay for through taxes. So, instead of claiming eighteen deductions, you should be PAYING an additional amount. We should not be subsidizing these kinds of decisions. Nor would it be a good thing if many families started following this trend.
In utah, I routinely worked with families of 10-12-15. Most were quite religious. Some of these families were poor and paid almost no taxes. Further, I saw quite a few that were in chaos, with the kids raising the kids. Certainly, not all of these parents were cut out for raising children, as was evidenced by the fact that their children were involved in gangs (hence, my involvement with the family).
Things may work okay for the Duggars, but as a rule, I would suggest that having this many children is not necessarily a positive for the kids. I saw the global experience of living in a society overwhelmed with huge families, and it has it's negative elements.
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