When it Comes to Having Kids, How Many is Too Many ?
From the archive. This post was first published on the original Green Eggs and Moms blog and is kept here as it was.
Can you imagine having 10 children? What about 15? 19?
Yup, 19. That’s how many kids an American family called the Duggar’s have. Aside from their great number of children, they are famous for having their own reality show. The latter is probably because of the former. You get the picture.
Anyway, I can’t seem to wrap my head around this one. I know a lot of families who struggle with 1 or 2 children. Often they say there’s not enough money or more importantly, not enough time to spend with their kid(s). But 19 children? How do parents provide adequate attention necessary to nurture all the children?
Jim and Michelle Duggar, both conservative Christians, used birth control until they experienced a miscarriage early in their marriage. They felt that the loss of the unborn child was due to contraceptives, and from then on let God decide how many children they would be given.
While I do believe that there should be things left up to God, married couples should also sensibly decide on how many kids to have. It’s the job of parents to provide their children with all the tools necessary so they succeed in life. This includes money, time and attention- lots of attention.
While it’s great that the entire family has developed a process for child rearing- a buddy system wherein an older sibling helps care for a younger one- can a couple really effectively parent all 19? I’m in no way attacking their parenting skills, I’m just extremely curious as to how these parents can attend to each child. A friend of mine who only has 1, races home from work to catch her daughter awake.
Oh, did I mention that the family is expecting their 20th child?
On a final note, according do Discovery News, here’s what the soon-to-be 20-time dad said about their pregnancy:
Amid the joy, Bob had a practical view on the situation: “We didn’t want to stop on an odd number.”
Practical, it is. Will they decide on having another one if they hit 21 kids? I’m afraid of the answer.
Sources:News.Discovery.com, 19 Kids Not Enough For Duggar Family
Wikipedia.com, 19 Kids and Counting
OMG Yahoo (ca.omg.yahoo.com), Michelle and Jim Duggar Expecting 20th Kid Photo:
Creative Commons from Gideon Tsang
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