Family Views

When I was little, I would go around playing with my dolls and explain to everyone how I wanted a big family. Seven kids at the most, and six kids at the least. Five kids was obviously not enough, but eight was just way too many. While I had this certain point of view on how many children you should have, growing up, I soon realized that everyone else's opinion was way different. As I went through school, I started slowly changing my mind. My idea of seven or six, went to three or four, which eventually lead to two or three children. And now I can't even decide, but lets be real I have time.

Anyway, the trends and opinions of the world affected my views on children. If it wasn't everyone's surprised face when I explained how any children I wanted, then it was definitely the world wide view of two children, a boy and a girl. The media has affected others views with comments that express children being the cause of ruined marriages and eventually divorces. Or my personal favorite, the act of having a big family is selfish. "You have created to many carbon footprints and are hogging all the resources. We have an over population problem and you are the cause." First of all selfish? I don't have kids but I babysit and know many parents with young kids. Raising a kid is anything but selfish. Second, lets all take a moment and think about the reasoning behind these statements. The whole world thinks that we are over populated. There is this agreement that in the future we will run out space to grow crops, therefore killing our source of survival, our food supply. So the solution...limit the amount of kids we have.

Now, I love numbers and I love facts. So, let me expand your knowledge and provide you with a fun fact. The truth is, yes, there are way more people on this planet than there once was at the beginning, but no we are not overpopulated. In a interesting experiment, they figured out the area of Texas and then divided it by human population. They found out that everyone in the world could fit in Texas with 2.3 acres per person. Now I don't know about you, but if we can fit in that small state with a few acres, then surely we have room for some more people. (You can read more about this in the links provided at the bottom of the post.)

I would like to share a quote with you that changed my perspective on the idea of having children or how many children I should have. It reads,

“There are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting to take tabernacles, now what is our duty?—To prepare tabernacles for them; to take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare tabernacles for all the spirits they can.” President Brigham Young

Only Four of the Eight plus DAD!

I am not saying that everyone should go out and have three more kids, but I do think it is important to realize the obligation we have. I am not married, I do not have kids, I do not understand all of the struggles that parenting implies, but I do believe that everyone should keep an open mind on the number of children you have. I was the seventh child of eight, at any time my mom could have stopped. I would have been born to another family and there is no telling who I would have become. But because my mom prayed and listened to the spirit, she was able to get confirmation that eight children was the right number for her family. All I want to leave you with is the possibility to have as many children you feel is right, because it would just be sad to think that one spirit missed the opportunity to be raised in such an amazing family.

http://www.zo.utexas.edu/courses/thoc/texas.html