[sinkspur]

When the children are grown up, there is only one other person to share the family responsibilities with (helping mom and dad) and the family joys.

Having children so you'll have cheap help when you're old is extremely selfish and short-sighted.

You know any oldsters whose kids see them once, maybe twice, a year? I know many.

[wouldntbprudent]

No one said that was why the children were conceived. But the reality is the children in small families often WANT to help their parents, but there are fewer siblings to divide the labor so it makes it harder for the children who WANT to do it.

That is all.

[MrEdd]

You know any oldsters whose kids see them once, maybe twice, a year? I know many.With some exceptions - the same ones who hustled their kids off to daycare or left them home alone. Children bond when they are small, and if you put no TIME and love into them when they are young, you get no TIME and love from them when they grow up. This is not rocket science here. Societies have known this for a long time. _{Until the 1960s when they decided to test it - not working out well.}