Welcome back to Good Life, a newsletter about navigating our modern culture and staying sane in the process. This weekend, we discuss big families and political baby bumps.
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For the last couple of weeks, I’ve had my entire family in town, which includes my three pregnant sisters. Pregnancy isn’t new in our house. My five sisters and I have brought 23 children into this world, with three more on the way. Every year, there is a newborn baby or a pregnant sister, so it’s easy for me to forget that others might find it shocking.
Somewhere along the way, our society has forgotten that big families bring big joy. A lot of women from a certain generation started telling their daughters that two was enough, three was pushing it, and anything more than that was untenable. I have four, and while that’s small potatoes compared to the rest of my sisters, I still get comments when I go out.
Just last night, I took the girls to dinner by myself, and a man stopped me to say that he had two daughters and that was enough. He couldn’t believe I’d have more. “They are so emotional. You must be a patient woman,” he said, laughing. These comments get on my nerves, not in a feminist girls-rule-the-world kinda way, but in a I-would-take-all-the -emotional-breakdowns-over-being-sad-and-alone kinda way. So I looked at him with a sweet southern smile painted across my face and responded, “I’m actually not, but they love me anyway.”
If there was ever a time I wished I could have more children, that moment was it. It’s completely insane to walk up to parents and tell them something like that, even if you are joking. We are responsible for raising the next generation of Americans, for passing down our morals and legacy. The future of our country and the world revolves around the business of having children. He should have thanked me for the service I undertook.
I’ve been playing the scenario over and over in my mind, and each time my retort is meaner.