Posted on 04/28/2009 12:58:36 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
I knew a few quiverful families when we homeschooled. One had 11 kids and was on welfare. The other 3 had 6-8 and were not. The welfare family made me pretty angry. The husband was a perpetual student who never even looked for a job in IT and if he had was so slovenly about his appearance I doubt anyone would have hired him. The night I sort of lost it with the mother was when she was whining about not having enough milk from WIC to last the month and having to water it down to stretch it. they were also on foodstamps. I said maybe your husband needs to keep his trousers zipped, quit using my tax money for further education he never intends to use and get a job to support his starving family. I do not think God intends that you keep producing children that you can not support, not even with the basics.
I don’t know anything about quiverfull other than what I learned watching the Duggars and googling it. Even then, I don’t know much about it.
I think it’s fine to have as many kids as one wants/God provides. My Dad and Mom came from large families (7 and 11 - well, 11 that survived childhood). I’m the youngest of 5. I have 4.
No doubt about that.
Please, don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with foster care or adoption. Just not something I’d do. Then again, I’d never had to consider it because I had my own biologically. And, I have enough nieces and nephews that I’d take in if need be.
Adoption is wonderful for those who choose to adopt/give their children up for adoption.
I used to be on the “Quiverfull” email list, and actually knew the founders, although I didn’t realize it at the time since the list was being run by others at that point. They spent a night with us when they were travelling - think we had 19 children for the night, mostly in tents ;-).
For some, “quiverfull” is a no-exceptions dogma: there is absolutely no reason for anyone ever to avoid conceiving a child. Some also say that a couple should not make any special efforts to HAVE a child (such as, like, getting together when the wife is fertile ...). Those appeared to be in the minority, however. Most would say, as I understand the Duggars do, “We don’t see any reason in *our* lives to limit our family,” with the understanding that circumstances might change.
Interesting. That was my take on the Duggars, too, or what I thought they were saying. I don’t watch the show regularly so only catch it once in a while.
I have no problem with anyone having as many or not so many kids. No problem with adoption either. I just don’t think any of it should be held as some standard or whatever. Adoption is wonderful for those who choose to participate. And not all adopted kids are wanted or loved either. Not all adopted kids are in families that nurture them, etc.
I admire that Duggar mother. 18 kids. What a body she must have. She’s really blessed. IMO.
As you said in your last sentence, ITA.
“Nobody is claiming otherwise, but this is no reason to call Tax-chick a “twit”.”
And that’s your opinion, just as I posted mine. Chick called me a liberal, I called her a twit. Tit for tat.
I love these protestants! They take one verse from Psalms (not to mention Anthony Trollope) and make a “movement” out of it, with virtually no theological underpinnings but some seemingly innate sense of God’s will for them.
Then we Catholics have one of the most beautiful Papal writings elaborating in brilliant detail this exact same idea, “Humanae Vitae” (and more recently the “Theology of the Body”) and what happens? Bishops protest it, the people ignore it, no one discusses it, the Church dwindles, parishes close, schools close, vocations drop.
Interestingly, most of the families I know like this do not even own a television. I don’t own a TV myself. These families (that I’ve met) are large, Christian or Catholic, usually with a very strong work ethic, and they homeschool. The kids are busy, boys are allowed to be boys and climb trees.
One advantage people don’t often realize of many children is they provide entertainment, guidance and comfort to one another...naturally. It’s not “super Mom” having to take care of everyone’s needs, they all pitch in according to their talents. As for television, if they have at all, it’s for Mom and Dad to watch the news after kids are in bed, and for children, as a treat, to watch VERY carefully screened videos. We’re talking old John Wayne movies and such, not even Disney films.
You would think with more kids it would be harder to control them, but I’ve observed the children in these large religious families are self-disciplined and don’t seek trouble, whereas the families with 2 or 3 spend their lives texting, twittering, staring at TV, smoking in secret (or worse, pot, alcohol) and generally cultivating an obnoxious and disrespectful attitude that for some reason their parents cannot control.
I have 5 of them -so far.
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