In total defiance of modern society, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar have entrusted their entire “quiver” to God and just welcomed their 18th child – girl Jordyn. Below is an excerpt I posted last year from Our Sunday Visitor Editor Gerald Korson’s humorous take on society’s view of large families:
Here’s how society’s perception of family size appears from our side of the maternity ward:
Child No. 1: In today’s culture, everyone is entitled to have a chid. No problem there. It’s a birthright. It can be a boy or a girl – it doens’t matter.
Child No. 2: You’re allowed a second child, as long as it’s the opposite gender from your first. “How wonderful! You have one boy and one girl,” we heard when our second child came. “Now you can quit.” Quit? At 25, we’re done having kids?
Child No. 3: The culture allows you, if you insist, to have a third child, but only if you failed to get a matched set with the first two. Call it a mulligan. If you have two girls, you go for a boy; two boys, and you’re after a girl. if you blow it and get another of the same, too bad. You get no more do-overs.
Child No. 4: Now you’re just getting ridiculous, especially if the kids are close in age. You’re officially christined “Fertile Myrtle” and “Virile Cyril.” Knock it off.
Child No.5: People begin to suspect you are nuts. Or just plain irrisponsible. Or both.
Child No. 6: The diagnosis is confirmed. Besides, a family of eight is simply impractical. Most minivans seat seven. Now you need a full-size van or nine-passenger SUV, or one of those classic early 1980s station wagons with the fake wood panelings and the fold-down third bench seat (I recommend the 1983 Pontiac Parisienne).
Child No. 7: By now, anywhere you venture as a family, you are inevitably asked, “Are they all yours?” Take no offence. Between day-care, field trips and the proliferation of blended families, it’s actually a legitimate question.
Child No. 8: Since No. 5 you’ve been hearing that timelessly coarse quip, “Don’t you know what causes that?” You have permenant teeth marks on your toungue from trying to suppress snappy sarcastic replies. (One wouldn’t think of making remarks about fertility to couples with few or no children. Why are large families fair game?)
Child No. 9: Neighbors, strangers and even a few well meaning friends have pretty much given up on you long before now. They compare your progeny to sprting events: With nine, you’ve got a baseball team.
Child No. 10: You’ve gone American League and added a designated hitter.
Couples with large families aren’t necessarily better parents, better Catholics or more blessed than others. We’re simply blessed in a different way – and, like all persons of faith, we are called to raise up our blessings for the greater glory of God.
The Duggars can be seen on the TLC series “Seventeen Kids and Counting.”
Previous Post:
How Can There Be Too Many Children?
Becoming Better People, One Child at a Time
Society’s View of Large Families
Family Welcomes 17th Child