So I am a nerd. In many ways actually, but still I am a nerd. I like a lot of reality TV shows and one of them that I like to follow, but not watch, is "19 Kids & Counting". I don't watch it because we don't have that channel anymore. Do I actually want that many kids? Not a chance, but I find it enjoyable (and entertaining if Dan is watching too because he sees the family in a completely different way) to watch this family raise their 19 kids. Why does this family have 19 kids? They don't believe in birth control. Fine. More power to you! I don't particularily think hormonal birth control is good either, but I'm fine with non-hormonal types where as they are not.Yes they have 19 kids and apparently one more on the way. And it amuses me that every time they announce they are having another kid people get into a rage because it's "stupid, selfish, child abuse, etc, etc....". My thoughts however, go towards a time, not too long ago, when birth control wasn't very common. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/pill/timeline/timeline2.html is just one website that describes the history of birth control. While it has been used for years in various forms, it wasn't until the 1950's that the hormonal type became available and popular. So what did people do before then? Well a lot were much like the Duggars - they became pregnant whenever God (whether they believed in God or not) allowed them too. It wasn't a big deal. Did all families have huge numbers of kids? No. But many had 10+ I'm sure, although I have no research to back that up.
So why the huge uproar now when a family has large numbers of kids? Well because it's not common so that must make it wrong! I mean seriously (and I say this with sarcasm) how do the older kids get to enjoy life when they are helping take care of the younger kids? Can't you see that they are losing out on their childhood? (end sarcasm) Just the thought of older siblings helping with younger ones seems to be horrific to most people! Well sorry people, but that's the way it was done for years and now because we average only 1.86 kids per family with kids (.90 per family) we don't have to do that anymore does not make it child abuse! Let the family have their kids! God has given them the means to support these kids and the kids are all well loved and happy, healthy members of society. Just because they are different then the majority of society does not make it wrong to have so many kids!
I guess I get a bit passionate about this (aka the nerd in me!) because I myself want what society would consider a large family. In fact we have already gotten questions about whether or not we'll "try for a boy" because we'll have 2 girls. Well people, we weren't planning on stopping after only 2 anyway, but we won't be continuing just for a boy! We'll be having more (Lord willing) because we want more and feel that God wants us to have more! Do we have a maximum number? Yup, and it's much less then 19. In fact it's less then 10 by a few digits. No means huge to us, but to the rest of society our maximum number is crazy and if we actually get to that number I'm sure we'll be getting raised eyebrows by some people!
