17 Kids!!!

[Twisterdog]

I do think overpopulation is a problem.

I also think that people should be able to do whatever they want to do with their own lives, as long as it harms no one else AND they can pay for it themselves.

So, I suppose, as long as they are not asking for hand-outs or getting welfare, it's no one else's business but theirs. It would REALLY irk me if WE were supporting seventeen kids with our tax dollars.

I, like others mentioned, simply do not understand why the public is so fascinated with stories like this. If they want to have litters of offspring, so be it, but let us not glorify the choice.

[Miss Z]

What is the problem with them having such a big family? It's their choice, and all the children look very well-cared for and happy. I see nothing wrong with that.


They don't need admiration, quite, they could easily opt not to broadcast their family life. But the fact is it makes good television and people, being inquisitive in nature, are always going to be intrigued by such stories. I don't find them particularly fascinating, but I find how each sibling helps each other out in education and housework very endearing. How many families do you know of with one, two or three kids who are as well-behaved and organised as the Duggars? I am certain my brother and I have, and will never, work together as dilligently and as maturely as those kids!

It may seem very odd to see such large families now, but remember that in our grandparents generation, the majority of families had well over 5 kids, many into double figures. True, perhaps not all survived childhood, but my grandmother can recall her uncle being from a family of 16, and her friends coming from families of 10+. The world is over-populated, yes, but I doubt that their example is really going to catch on in the developed world.

[Sevaede]

As long as they are all happy, its cool by me. Like my mum told me: "If only we were that organized!"
Its their life, and if this is how they want to live it, more power to them!
My grandmum had 11 kids, and I always thought that was a big family..

I'm glad I'm not the only one with a big family! My grandfather had 13 kids and I was always sort of amazed (kinda) by it..

[Twisterdog]

I do not believe that comparisons to our grandparents, great-grandparents, great-great-grandparents large families to modern day life is not valid.

For one thing, there were no reliable means of birth control available to them. A woman couldn't simply take a birth control pill, they didn't exist. Birth control as we know it now is a very new invention.

For another, our society was mainly an agricultural one back then. Parents owned a farm, and children worked on the farm. The more kids you had, the more work got done, the more pigs got slaughtered, eggs gathered, cows milked. Children added to your lifestyle, and were a means of support. The vast majority of people did not attend college, or get jobs away from the family farm. That is generally not the case now.

Also, the mortaility rate was higher. Vaccinations were not in existance, or not prevelant. Accidents, epidemics, poor nutrition, and common illness claimed many more young lives than they do now. It was simple math ... if a couple needed five strong young men to help run the family farm, they had better have about fifteen kids, knowing that about seven would be women who would marry and go to their husbands' farms, and at least three would die in childhood.

[Giselle]

Ever since the industrial revolution(s), our population has grown exponentially. As we all know, exponential growth means RAPID growth in a very very short amount of time. Additionally, we are incredibly close (if not overreaching) our carrying capacity, and, as history has taught us, once we overstep the boundaries of our carrying capacity, we die off to let Nature recuperate. So, yeah, I do care, and, no, I don't find anything about this family admirable.

I have to agree with Edwina's Secretary: Poor Mother Earth!!

[crow_noir]

17 kids... They have a few more to go to catch up to my high school French teacher. OMG, where do they all come from? Yikes.

I went to school with one of the guy's sons. Nice enough kid... strange family.

I'm not even going to get on my soapbox.