Shrinking Family

I have been thinking recently how next year we will officially be a family of six. It is amazing that already people consider our family large. I cannot go anywhere without somebody giving me a look of sympathy and telling me "wow, you have your hands full". I find it funny most of the time. I think about what people must have though of my mom when she was walking through the store with six little ones in tow.

I wonder what people will think when I have two in a stroller, one walking with me, and a pregnant belly. Most will think we do not know how to use birth control. Although, perhaps that is true!, I would love to just leave out the part about the "accident". I would love to see the looks on their faces when I say how excited we are to have four children. That we would have it no other way. I think being happy about having four children in six years would be pretty shocking to most.

According to the Census Bureau figures, since 1970 the percentage of households containing five or more people has fallen by half. And it keeps shrinking. I am not here to say we must all have at least four children. What I am curious about is why it is so bizarre to have more than 1 or 2 kids, as if there was something irresponsible about it.

I was talking to a lady at church on Sunday about my pregnancy. She has 7, I think. She was saying that more people will ask you bizarre questions. One person asked her if she thought she had to many children. She answered back, well which one of these children you see do you think I should not have had?

I would LOVE to hear from people on this. There are so many different reasons for family sizes. I think it would be very interesting to hear how many kids you have (if any), if you are done, if you do not have children how many do you want, why?

I would really love for this NOT to be a debate about how many children are to many, not enough etc. I would just love to hear the perspective or opinion from others. I have noticed that "large" families in today's society are taboo, so assuming believers are the only ones reading this blog, are they becoming taboo even for us?