Tuesday, May 13, 2008

"How Many Children Do You Want?"

I just posted this at Catholic Dads:

I'm curious to get some perspectives from others in Catholic Dads-Land:

How do you respond to the question, "How many children do you want?"

Having four kids under six, we get this question not infrequently, as I'm sure many of you do as well. Our kneejerk response is usually something along the lines of, "As many as God gives us," or, "I don't know, but we're open to a large family."

While these responses honestly reflect our attitude toward family life, I'm not sure how cogent they are to the ears of someone who thinks the notion that using contraception is a bad idea is akin to the notion that using soap is a bad idea.

Any thoughts?

3 comments:

The Dutchman said...

It kind of became a joke in our house. When we had our first girl, people would ask, “When are you going to have another?” Then, when the second one was a boy, people said, “Oh, you can stop now; you have one of each.” And then with the third one, people would ask, “How many are you going to have!?” Wife-Mate unilaterally decided to stop at three, so I really don’t know it is when you get up to four or more, and I don’t have a good Christian answer for you.

I do have a bad, un-Christian answer for you though.

Several years ago, I was at the Green Festival and when a rather radical environmentalist chastised me for having three kids and “contributing to overpopulation,” I snapped at him, “I’ve got three kids and they are all well on the way to becoming good citizens. Why don’t you go and bother some Crack Ho’ who shouldn’t be having any!”

Kathleen F said...

I'm not married, but it seems I've been asked this question quite a bit lately, and this is how I respond:

"Fourteen."

Jackie Parkes MJ said...

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