Sunday, September 16, 2007

Large Families

Stef at and these thy gifts has linked to a great article on large families.

The contempt shown to parents of large familes.

Brava Rabbi Boteach.

Thanks Stef for passing on a positive article about large families.

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love my van (and the kids that have meant we need a van!)

I've always loved the sight of a family van loaded full of kids!

I would hate to be someone who doesn't like kids.

Therese said...

Remember the words of Mother Teresa Louise? It is poverty to decide a child must die so that you can live as you please.

Therese said...

Also I realize this is directed towards people wanting abortion but it is also the mind set of people using contraception. I must not have another child because I may not be able to live as I please.

Episcopollyanna said...

Oh yes, I completely agree with the author and with you. There definitely is contempt against large families and I think it has existed for pretty much all of my lifetime (I was born at the very end of 1968).

My mother comes from a Mormon background, although her parents left the church when she was young. Her aunts and uncles all had 10 or 12 children so you can do the math - she has dozens and dozens of cousins, all of whom have gone on to have large families of their own. I've heard the nasty comments, believe me. "People aren't meant to have litters." "How can you give attention to all of those kids?" etc. etc.

Even though I don't share the same faith as my mom's side of the family, they are wonderful parents (for the most part - there are a couple of exceptions, naturally) and we all love them. We were honored to host a family reunion for 29 of her cousins this summer.

I'm an only child and I wish I had grown up with at least a brother or a sister, but my mother couldn't have any more children. And I don't have any children of my own, unfortunately.

Sorry for such a long comment! It's too bad people have to be so judgmental, isn't it? (Thanks for the link to Stef's blog - I'm already in love with her recipes, just on first glance!)

God bless you and your family! :)

Therese said...

Hey no worries about the long comment. I enjoy reading peoples thoughts on this.

I was the 4th child in my family. My mother had 1 more after me and I always wished we had more. The volkswagon kombi was very popular in the 70's here. I wished we had a car like that and I think it was because I liked seeing a car full of children like Louise. Now we have a 2003 kombi and a car full of children.

Michele said...

you know what? i have a very big family. we are 12 in total. withy 2 that have gone to Jesus. but regardless, its great being a part of a big family!!! i love it!! i could never imagine being a part of a small family.
i would feel alone! iam number nine of that big family:) do you know what's funny about big families? your close to every single one of them:) you get more hugs, more laughs, more fun and so on with a big family! this is why i miss my family so much, and miss having Christmas dinner with my family:( we all grew up and moved away. the phone doesn't cut it. when we are all together we have such a terrific time!!! the funeral of my brother in june brought us all together, it was sad, but we were all together again and believe it or not, it was a sad time but also wonderful to be together, we don't get to be together often, but when we are it is really lovely! it really is. sniff sniff:( i miss my family! wish we didn't live so far apart!

Therese said...

That is such a wonderful testimony Marilena. I hope my children all feel the same when they are older.

Anonymous said...

We have a 17 seater mini-bus!

Michele said...

smiling at jackie:)

Anonymous said...

Did a small post re the rabbi on my blog...

Therese said...

Thats good Jackie. We get so much negativity here about having a large family (and I said to Steve this afternoon that 7 isn't really that big when there are families out there with 10 and 12 or even 14). I love saying to people we only have 7. You should see the reaction on their face. I am glad that many more people are reading this article.

Also Jackie, I have been meaning to ask you for a while, what does the MJ at the end of your name stand for?

Jane (a.k.a. patjrsmom) said...

Love it, Therese. We have six kids and are praying that God's will for us is more (although ultimately we will find peace whatever His plan is for us). Nonetheless, people are always slack-jawed when we say "six now, maybe more someday". And I agree with you about the number of children we have not seeming that big for us. As we sat at dinner with *only* 5 of our kids the other night, I remarked to my husband, "Boy, five feels like almost none!" I think the feeling that a large family isn't such a burden is truly a grace from God and is part of helping us in discerning if our call is to parent a large family. There are some who discern (or find it's God's will) that they parent a small family, but they are called to tasks that for me would be monumental to achieve! God really has a special plan and a purpose for all of us. It would be nice if people didn't judge us be it small family or large.

Thanks for sharing!
Jane

Anonymous said...

kombi vans are great, Therese!

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