the cuppboard

Big families are people, too!

I’m tired of individuals being assigned numerical value.

That family with ten kids? Each and every child in it is an individual — a person — a being who is capable of giving and receiving. She’s not the Ninth Child. He’s not an extension of the familial glob. They’re not a “large family.” We’re people — and there’s nothing weird about being a person.

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When people talk about large families being morally repugnant, I bristle. I’m acceptable, being the second. I’m normal — I was born first. But somehow the younger ones aren’t as human. They’re not as special as the first child. They’re leading a downward spiral of decency decay.

We need to retrain how we view children — as people, not assigned numbers; as individuals, not “large families.” No more do I say, “I want a large family.” I say, “I want every single one of them.” One or twelve — each is a person with just as much right to be here as anybody else.