It always helps to have the extended familiy nearby. We don´t have that many children but both grandmothers are within hands reach and spend time with the children regularly. This really helps to free up some time to spend on other stuff that needs to get done.
I appreciate the different perspective. I always wanted a large family but that was not God’s plan for my life due to a genetic disorder. I currently cannot hold my head upright for longer than 90 minutes without a 3 day migraine and multiple pregnancies would likely disable me completely. It’s hard being in circles of some people who think everyone should have large families and if you don’t, you don’t trust God. I personally think if God did not want us to have any say, he would not have given us wisdom about our bodies. I also think the people who say you should ALWAYS be open to life would change their tune with a quickness if they had the same genetic disorder 😅
Mother of 5 littles here, and I really agree with this post.
Even just a year ago, I might have cringed at this line of thinking, but having learned much about letting my husband lead our family rather than negotiating everything between the two of us, it makes a lot of sense for men to have frank conversations about the wisdom of intentionally growing their families.
This was really helpful! I agree with all these distinctions and points and have tried to structure our family keeping many of them in mind, but your way of organizing and wording all this is a helpful and sober reminder to me to not grow complacent in attending to each of these things and in remembering the huge responsibility I've taken on by having a large family (we have 7 children). God is faithful, but far be it from us to not love our wives and children well, or to be a bad witness to the watching world by not attending to our callings with discernment.
So good. I have eight children, and know many many large families, and my only quibble is with moms of many looking older earlier. The pregnancy hormones cover a multitude of sins and the efficiency a large family requires often shows in mama's health. But i know some families where the husband is lazy and improvident, but wants a large family as some sort of virtue signal. I shudder for their wives. (Also: another peril is the weird fetishization of large families by a lot of people)
It always helps to have the extended familiy nearby. We don´t have that many children but both grandmothers are within hands reach and spend time with the children regularly. This really helps to free up some time to spend on other stuff that needs to get done.
I appreciate the different perspective. I always wanted a large family but that was not God’s plan for my life due to a genetic disorder. I currently cannot hold my head upright for longer than 90 minutes without a 3 day migraine and multiple pregnancies would likely disable me completely. It’s hard being in circles of some people who think everyone should have large families and if you don’t, you don’t trust God. I personally think if God did not want us to have any say, he would not have given us wisdom about our bodies. I also think the people who say you should ALWAYS be open to life would change their tune with a quickness if they had the same genetic disorder 😅
Mother of 5 littles here, and I really agree with this post.
Even just a year ago, I might have cringed at this line of thinking, but having learned much about letting my husband lead our family rather than negotiating everything between the two of us, it makes a lot of sense for men to have frank conversations about the wisdom of intentionally growing their families.
This was really helpful! I agree with all these distinctions and points and have tried to structure our family keeping many of them in mind, but your way of organizing and wording all this is a helpful and sober reminder to me to not grow complacent in attending to each of these things and in remembering the huge responsibility I've taken on by having a large family (we have 7 children). God is faithful, but far be it from us to not love our wives and children well, or to be a bad witness to the watching world by not attending to our callings with discernment.
So good. I have eight children, and know many many large families, and my only quibble is with moms of many looking older earlier. The pregnancy hormones cover a multitude of sins and the efficiency a large family requires often shows in mama's health. But i know some families where the husband is lazy and improvident, but wants a large family as some sort of virtue signal. I shudder for their wives. (Also: another peril is the weird fetishization of large families by a lot of people)