Posted on 02/08/2009 6:44:18 PM PST by reaganaut1
THE comment from the photographer at Sears was typical. “Are these all yours?” she asked, surveying Kim Gunnip’s 12 children.
“No,” Mrs. Gunnip replied, “I picked some up at the food court.”
But it was harder to find a retort for the man in line at the supermarket, who said within earshot of her youngest children, “You must have a great sex life.”
Now her family, like other larger families, as they call themselves, is facing endless news coverage of the octuplets born in California and a new round of scorn, slack jaws and stupid jokes.
Back when the average woman had more than three children, big families were the Kennedys of Hickory Hill and Hyannis Port, “Cheaper by the Dozen,” the Cosbys or “Eight is Enough” — lovable tumbles of offspring as all-American in their scrapes as in their smiles.
But as families have shrunk, and parents helicopter over broods tinier yet more precious, a vanload of children has taken on more of a freak show factor. The families know the stereotypes: they’re polygamists, religious zealots, reality-show hopefuls or Québécois in it for the per-child government bonus. And isn’t there something a little obsessive about Angelina Jolie’s quest for her own World Cup soccer team?
“Look at the three shows on TLC that have bigger families,” said Meagan Francis, the 31-year-old author of “Table for Eight,” which stems from her experience raising four children (she is expecting her fifth next month). “One is about religious fundamentalists, one has sextuplets, the other is a family of little people,” she said, referring to, respectively, the Duggars of “17 Kids and Counting,” “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” and “Little People, Big World,” about two dwarfs raising four children, three of average stature, on a pumpkin farm in Oregon.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Amen.
We really are very blessed. And we share more with our siblings that we ever could with other friends. We have shared our entire lives and all the memories of them together, not to mention a blood line. And many lessons for life were learned that smaller families don't experience. We are like our own little societies!
I am the 4th of 12.
My father’s parents had nine, and my mother’s parents had seven. (Sadly, one in each family died young, and those numbers don’t include miscarriages.) Those were big, Catholic families, typical in those days. Because my parents had lots of brothers and sisters, we, their children, benefitted from having plenty of aunts, uncles, and cousins in a large, close, extended family.
My parents were very practical, and they had two children. Of the two of us, I was the only one who had children. So, my three children don’t have any first cousins on my side, and on my husband’s side, there are none their age. That’s why I think bigger families are a blessing, and I wish we could’ve had more babies, but we’re in our forties now.
However, a single woman having herself impregnated with 14 children... is simply being irresponsible and selfish.
Of course that is said assuming both parents are committed to the necessary sacrifices to say together and make a family work. Personally I don't believe insemination should be allowed unless a married couple has tried and exhausted natural means. And single people should not qualify. Why burden a child with problems that can be foreseen, there are enough in life that cannot be foreseen.
Oh, believe me. You can have chaos with just three. It depends on the three.
You can have chaos with just one—especially when he’s autistic.
We have nine. We hear the "questions" all the time.
1 "Are you Catholic?"
2 "Do you know what causes that?"
3 "ARe you going to get fixed?"
4 "Are they all yours?"
5 "How do you do it?"
I've thought about printing a shirt with all the answers on it.
1 I think I'm almost qualified.
2 "Yes. That's why we have so many."
2a "Yes, we bought books."
3 "Fixed? It's not broken."
4 "As far as we know. Wait! Who is that one?"
5 "Personal question!"
5a "We buy bigger pots and pans."
(I'm an only child. I always wanted an older brother to break my parents in for me, LOL.)
Believe it or not people do make stupid statents like that when you don’t have kids.
My grandparents already had 5 children in 1948. My grandmother was expecting what they thought was twins because she got so big. They were in for a really big surprise when there were three babies instead of two. They were the only tripletts to ever survive in the area in which we live and were a local sensation. My grandmother was even going to take in another set of tripletts born later because their mother was not taking proper care of them, but, they died before she could get them. She took in and raised several other children over the course of the years and then later ran a rest home for elderly ladies out of her own home. I guess some people just like to take care of others and have a lot of love to share.
Reach down towards crotch, "oh darn it, here comes another one!" "you had to go and say something didn't you."
If folks can properly provide for a large family, really want and have a deep love for such ....I say go for it !
If they are just out for anchor babies, welfare income or running a human version of a puppy farm for adoption rackets etc then spay or neuter the criminal critters.....
Oh trust me, you will.
How many do you have?
My Great-Grandfather had 22, his first wife passed away when they had 10. A few years later he remarried and they had 12 more. That was common back in the 1800’s, he owned a several thousand acre farm.
ROFL!!
If you ever hear that kind of comment again, reply with a big smile, "God's love!"
Watch the idiot shut up.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.