Hm. I have to be the lone complainer here, I found that article highly annoying, for reasons nicely summed in Feministe comments here. http://www.feministe.us/blog/archives/2012/06/18/think-before-babies/ Briefly: arrogant assumption that people *don't* think very carefully about the decision; conflation of "people don't think" with "people think differently than I do"; etc. The extreme cases of Octomom/Duggans damage the argument more than a teeny bit. These people are making very conscious choices to have (many, many) kids, which is pretty much the opposite of "eh, we had kids because that's what one does, right?"
I also don't quite agree with the base assumption that having 10 kids is intrinsically less ethical than having 2. (Environmental issues aside, because they don't form part of her argument.) Big families are completely different to small ones. No, those kids won't get the same one-on-one parental attention, but they will have plenty of other relationships, a very different childhood experience. There will be less money to spread around, but are we seriously arguing that wealth = wellbeing? I don't think you can automatically assume that one family is better than the other.
(My dad came from a traditional Catholic family - 7 kids, plus one adopted later, plus various hangers-on at different times, all welcome. I can't imagine having such a family myself but to some extent, I've always admired and enjoyed the big, messy warmth of it.)
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Briefly: arrogant assumption that people *don't* think very carefully about the decision; conflation of "people don't think" with "people think differently than I do"; etc. The extreme cases of Octomom/Duggans damage the argument more than a teeny bit. These people are making very conscious choices to have (many, many) kids, which is pretty much the opposite of "eh, we had kids because that's what one does, right?"
I also don't quite agree with the base assumption that having 10 kids is intrinsically less ethical than having 2. (Environmental issues aside, because they don't form part of her argument.) Big families are completely different to small ones. No, those kids won't get the same one-on-one parental attention, but they will have plenty of other relationships, a very different childhood experience. There will be less money to spread around, but are we seriously arguing that wealth = wellbeing? I don't think you can automatically assume that one family is better than the other.
(My dad came from a traditional Catholic family - 7 kids, plus one adopted later, plus various hangers-on at different times, all welcome. I can't imagine having such a family myself but to some extent, I've always admired and enjoyed the big, messy warmth of it.)