I usually work on the week's blog post Tuesday or Wednesday, to publish Saturday night. Not because I am efficient (I ain't, not by a long chalk) but because editing for grammar, spelling and general coherence usually takes a few days of procrastination before I lose the urge to junk every last word and run screaming into the night, flailing my arms and generally being a total drama queen (Great job there, another 50 readers now firmly convinced you are gay. Keep it up. - Ed).
Sometimes, regular readers are kind enough to suggest current news topics in the questions, rating a bonus blog. This is one of those. Thank you, BlackTea-007!
"I just read that the Duggars are expecting their 20th child. This can be a polarizing discussion topic w/those that know about them. MM, I'm very curious about your thoughts on this, as well as the discussions in the comments that might follow." - BlackTea-007
I gotta admit, my knowledge of the Duggars is sketchy, limited to glimpses of the occasional ad for the series, and waking up half way through an episode one time and watching in baffled horror for five minutes before scrambling for the relative safety of the fishing channel, so I had to run to Google to find the story. Once I finished banging my head on the keyboard, purely for inspiration, you know, my first thought was:
What is this fascination we have now for large families? Someone has more than the usual 2.4 children and the media drowns them in attention and cash while we, the viewing/reading public, lap it up.
A woman with octuplets - not going to use the stupid name the press gave her as I don't want my word processor to throw up.
John and Kate Plus Eight - now seemingly Kate Plus Eight and I ain't exactly surprised as she'd take gold in the Olympic whining event.
"19 Kids and Counting," - the ongoing saga of the Duggar's attempt to populate their own state.
Michelle Bachmann wittering on at every chance about her 30-odd kids.
What is the obvious next step? (don't watch that link at work, you can get fired for laughing too hard. It features the inimitable Katy Stoll and the delectable Katie Willert. Actually you can flip those descriptions and they still work.)
My Grandad was the eldest of 12. Nonna one of the middle ones (we sort of lost track) of 9. Hell, my Dad has two brothers and four sisters. Mom is the eldest of 5, and if by now you are thinking "shanty Irish,"
a/ don't be nasty, and
b/ no.
While the Duggars take it to extremes, four to ten kids was the norm only a couple of generations ago, not something to be pointed at in the streets and made into a spectacle.
One reason is obvious: "Michelle abstains from birth control and says she leaves her family planning up to God."
Look lady, I know the dude created the universe in all it's glory and complexity but his fine focus must have slipped a bit since then, as he seems to have turned your vagina into a slip 'n slide purely for the giggles. The last time He got this distracted, we wound up trying to explain the existence of the platypus.
20 kids is a bit much. Ask any teacher. And teachers, unlike parents, can hand the little sods back.
The other reason that families were bigger back in the day is:
No TV. Have you, gentle reader, ever gone a week with no electricity? It gets cold and dark fast of a night time. Nothing to do but snuggle under the blankets and do the horizontal tango until you fall asleep. Dicing with the probability gods every time and usually, as they are vindictive, losing.
So think on your life as a public service, Michelle and Jim Bob. Think of how many people you have put on the road to life long abstinence. Or at least the road to "No freaking way I am having children ever." Nicely done.
I
ain't even gonna comment on the sickeningly cutesy J names crap. If
they had started at A, they'd nearly have the full alphabet by now.
Much more practical. With a few fertile years left, they could have
gone for glory instead of running out of names.
I have five children and I know what a challenge large families are, so I watched the show thinking it would be like witnessing a train wreck or some other type spectacle. My daughter watches it because she enjoys all the little ones and she asks me to sit and watch with her.
What I found was an awesome family full of beautiful people, physically and otherwise. Michelle is without a doubt one of the most lovely women with beautiful and gentle parenting skills. I envy the soft spoken kind manner in which she conducts herself in every situation.
Jim Bob has never shown anything other than kindness and respect for his wife and children. He has never been in debt, even prior to the income for the show. They have never been on any social assistance and teach each of their kids to be a good person and a good citizen. Both parents speak highly of each of their children and modestly boast about each kids character.
I'm not crazy about the full quiver large family idea, but what the heck. The kids are all dearly loved, well cared for, well adjusted and so lucky to have each other. Five of them are adults already and they have a huge home and lots of room in the hearts for another. I wish every kid could be so lucky and so wanted.
As many as those births are, those women can't touch "Mrs." Feodor Vassilyev (history doesn't even record her own name!). She gave birth to 69 children, yes, SIXTY-NINE. And all but two survived past infancy, amazing considering she lived in the early 18th century before germ theory and antibiotics. Childhood mortality was appallingly high back then, during many periods of history, as few as 25% of people born survived into adulthood. This high death rate was probably a major factor in having large families and even people getting married in their early teens.