This family makes me angry. The older kids each have responsibility for one of their younger siblings while mum and dad keep pumping them out. What happened to spending quality time with your kids? And their piano teacher does all their washing.
Let me make this quite plain - I don't agree with it and I'm not defending it.... but it occurred to me that the really weird thing about how I reacted to this was how quickly our notions (as a society, not individual) can change.
3-4 generations ago this would have been completely normal in western societies (well except that there might be a few gaps where the high infant mortality rate kicked in). Thank whichever deity or science (your choice) for adequate contraception, modern medicine and the women's lib movement that this is no longer the case.
My mum is 10 and 13 years older than her two youngest siblings respectively - and so she was also in the situation where she pretty much brought them up because her dad was a sailor and her mum had 6 kids... it wasn't that long ago that there were limited choices for families.
I am just sooooo glad that I am around in a time and place where I have the choice and can make it freely. Another of many reasons to be thankful!
hmmmm... I have to disagree a bit there, Fliss. this family wouldn't have been a *completely* normal situation.
large families occurred mostly due to lack of birth control. some of that due to religious beliefs, some of that due to lack of methods (eg, the pill). totally agreed there.
and of course there's the high infant mortality you mentioned, so even if a woman did indeed go through 10 births she may only raise 6 children. or she died.
what *wasn't* prevalent was the attitude that it really is your duty to have as many children as is (in)humanly possible solely to glorify god. yes, you were expected to have a family as part of being a good christian, but the large family wasn't usually by choice.
this family is a choice.
and there's also the not-so-subtle message that you have to breed more christian folk to have more soldiers to fight for christ than there are of those nasty muslim types.
hence the Quiverfull movement.
there is a complete lack of choice for everyone in this family except the husband. everyone is brainwashed. no-one has freedom. children are home-schooled and have no choices and no exposure to another way of life.
my grandparents weren't forced into this situation, neither (to the best of my knowledge) were their parents.
I get really cranky. like I said, don't google Quiverfull unless you want to be pissed off. it makes me ill to see the way these children are being brought up!
sigh. thus endeth the rant. thanks for your patience :)
What annoyed me about Quiverfull is the dodgy acticles on the dangers of birth control - ie the pill increasing your risk of cancer (actually it decreases) and that vasectomies make testicles rupture (using a kinked hose as an analogy)
What you and your family get up to is up to you, but using lies and scare tactics to spread your point of view is wrong.
Although as Fliss says, the mechanics of raising a large family probably hasn't changed no matter how it comes about.
well, I didn't look at the quiverfull stuff. I figured if it would make me mad as hell I probably shouldn't look at it.(I trust your judgement on these things & enough things make me as mad as hell without adding to the list). Therefore missed the brainwashed christian undercurrent... which does change how you look at it a fair bit.
yeah, fair point Fliss - don't look at it. it *will* make you cranky. and you probably don't actually have to go looking to work out what kind of bollocks they're touting!
8 comments:
This family makes me angry. The older kids each have responsibility for one of their younger siblings while mum and dad keep pumping them out. What happened to spending quality time with your kids? And their piano teacher does all their washing.
all I can say is, don't google 'quiverfull' if you don't want to be even angrier...
There are many, many things that should never, ever be googled as I found out yesterday when I googled "vagina clown car".
Just don't. And don't be clicking on any Youtube links that come up from that search either, no matter how curious you are!
Lawks!
Let me make this quite plain - I don't agree with it and I'm not defending it.... but it occurred to me that the really weird thing about how I reacted to this was how quickly our notions (as a society, not individual) can change.
3-4 generations ago this would have been completely normal in western societies (well except that there might be a few gaps where the high infant mortality rate kicked in). Thank whichever deity or science (your choice) for adequate contraception, modern medicine and the women's lib movement that this is no longer the case.
My mum is 10 and 13 years older than her two youngest siblings respectively - and so she was also in the situation where she pretty much brought them up because her dad was a sailor and her mum had 6 kids... it wasn't that long ago that there were limited choices for families.
I am just sooooo glad that I am around in a time and place where I have the choice and can make it freely. Another of many reasons to be thankful!
hmmmm... I have to disagree a bit there, Fliss. this family wouldn't have been a *completely* normal situation.
large families occurred mostly due to lack of birth control. some of that due to religious beliefs, some of that due to lack of methods (eg, the pill). totally agreed there.
and of course there's the high infant mortality you mentioned, so even if a woman did indeed go through 10 births she may only raise 6 children. or she died.
what *wasn't* prevalent was the attitude that it really is your duty to have as many children as is (in)humanly possible solely to glorify god. yes, you were expected to have a family as part of being a good christian, but the large family wasn't usually by choice.
this family is a choice.
and there's also the not-so-subtle message that you have to breed more christian folk to have more soldiers to fight for christ than there are of those nasty muslim types.
hence the Quiverfull movement.
there is a complete lack of choice for everyone in this family except the husband. everyone is brainwashed. no-one has freedom. children are home-schooled and have no choices and no exposure to another way of life.
my grandparents weren't forced into this situation, neither (to the best of my knowledge) were their parents.
I get really cranky. like I said, don't google Quiverfull unless you want to be pissed off. it makes me ill to see the way these children are being brought up!
sigh. thus endeth the rant. thanks for your patience :)
What annoyed me about Quiverfull is the dodgy acticles on the dangers of birth control - ie the pill increasing your risk of cancer (actually it decreases) and that vasectomies make testicles rupture (using a kinked hose as an analogy)
What you and your family get up to is up to you, but using lies and scare tactics to spread your point of view is wrong.
Although as Fliss says, the mechanics of raising a large family probably hasn't changed no matter how it comes about.
well, I didn't look at the quiverfull stuff. I figured if it would make me mad as hell I probably shouldn't look at it.(I trust your judgement on these things & enough things make me as mad as hell without adding to the list). Therefore missed the brainwashed christian undercurrent... which does change how you look at it a fair bit.
yeah, fair point Fliss - don't look at it. it *will* make you cranky. and you probably don't actually have to go looking to work out what kind of bollocks they're touting!
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