Family welcomes 18th child...not the Duggars

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Hi, I found this article. This family in British Columbia (Romanian immigrants) recently welcomed their 18th child.

I loved this quote by the husband/father:

***“We never planned how many children to have,” he said. "We just let God guide our lives, you know, because we strongly believe life comes from God and that’s the reason we did not stop the life.

“We let life come.” ***

Link to full story…

ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080726/18_children_080726/20080726?hub=TopStories&s_name=
 
Yay! Finally something obviously prolife in my own country!
 
I still can’t help but think that 18 children is a little self indulgent and selfish to the existing kids. I’m sure they have the older kids doing more then their share of the work. I’m not saying large families are a bad thing but 18 kids…come on. They could have adopted several kids and given homes to kids that really needed the love instead of just continuing to have more kids. I’m sorry I just thinks it’s a little excessive. :rolleyes:
 
18 kids*** is ***a little excessive. like God’s abundant blessings are excessive. like graces are excessive. like God’s love is excessive.
I love the humility of their attitude as well - God bless them
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so do I. their humility is entirely compelling. that’s a model of openness I deeply admire.
 
Sierrah said:
I still can’t help but think that 18 children is a little self indulgent and selfish to the existing kids. I’m sure they have the older kids doing more then their share of the work. I’m not saying large families are a bad thing but 18 kids…come on. They could have adopted several kids and given homes to kids that really needed the love instead of just continuing to have more kids. I’m sorry I just thinks it’s a little excessive. :rolleyes:
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Self indulgent??? Selfish??? Obviously you have never been a mom of a large family… these mom’s are the most selfless people in the world! So how does dividing up chores say 10 ways make it harder than having 2 kids and splitting it up? There were 5 kids in my family and I would have loved more brothers and sisters… and I actually lament the fact that a good portion of my fertile years were spent single and I only have 3 living children.

Why do you say…They could have adopted? Would your other arguments have been more valid if half were adopted? I don’t see it at all…

Excessive??? Really??? God gives you the gift of new life and your reply? “No thanks God… please don’t bless us soooo much”???

Eighteen kids means a wide array of ages… what better gift to give your child than a playmate that is there 24/7? What better way to teach responsibilities than having kids of all sizes to learn to care for???

Please!!!
 
Sierrah said:
I still can’t help but think that 18 children is a little self indulgent and selfish to the existing kids. I’m sure they have the older kids doing more then their share of the work. I’m not saying large families are a bad thing but 18 kids…come on. They could have adopted several kids and given homes to kids that really needed the love instead of just continuing to have more kids. I’m sorry I just thinks it’s a little excessive. :rolleyes:
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I understand your POV, Good luck to you because you are going to offend large families. If one can afford to support a family that large, God Bless them. I don’t think it is selfishness, quite the opposite actually:shrug: .
 
Sierrah said:
I still can’t help but think that 18 children is a little self indulgent and selfish to the existing kids. I’m sure they have the older kids doing more then their share of the work.
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“More than their fair share”?? What does that mean? When you are part of a family you have responsibilities - some are great, some are small. Do you mean to say that Mom isn’t pulling her weight?
I’m not saying large families are a bad thing but 18 kids…come on.
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Well, are you are aren’t you? If large families are not a bad thing, then what’s wrong here? :confused:
They could have adopted several kids and given homes to kids that really needed the love instead of just continuing to have more kids. I’m sorry I just thinks it’s a little excessive. :rolleyes:
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And so what would they have done instead then? Contracepted? Avoided sex in their marriage and managed their family size to avoid conception, then adopt when they are perfectly fertile? I’m sorry but there has to be a sin in there somewhere!! :eek:

We don’t have children (not our choice) and I’m not sure I could handle even one. But my gosh, to call this self indulgent and selfish just blows my mind!! I can’t imagine anything LESS self indulgent and selfish than giving yourself and everything you have to bring 18 lives into the world.

So - if this is self indulgent and selfish, to have 18 children of their own. If they had adopted 18 children, would you feel the same? Or would it be ok if they had a mix? :rolleyes:

~Liza
 
I think this large family is beautiful! 🙂

There are 20 immediate family members total; 2 parents and 18 children. This means that each individual person in this family has 19 people to love and 19 people to be loved by!

Parent-child love is incomparable joy and quintessential acceptance. It is devoted, caring, and unconditional. No other human love can substitute.

The fraternal love between siblings is precious, supportive, playful, individualized, and lifelong.

How many of us wish we were so fortunate to have 19 close nuclear family members to love and be loved by? Talk about quality interaction value!

Nineteen warm huggers, nineteen sweet kissers, nineteen smilers, nineteen coo-ers, nineteen lap holders, nineteen helpers, nineteen playmates, and nineteen pray-ers for the new baby! :grouphug:

I say the more the merrier! I prefer more love and happiness, rather than less love. Why would anyone want less love?

Who wants to send CM blessings from the CM family?

I do. Welcome baby Abigail!

Sincerely,

MadeMe
 
I think it’s beautiful and not at all selfish. I know few large families that have not been abundantly blessed; not necessarily in the material sense. Seems like, with maybe one exception, all the families I know with 5 or more kids are chock-full of responsible, productive members of society: the perpetual volunteers, the community leaders, the caring professionals - you name it. Must be something in the genes or the environment or both!
 
Is this really supposed to be a good thing? :confused: How can a family with 18 children provide each child with the individual care and attention each child needs? It’s totally their business what they do as a family but why hold them up as such great examples? Are you really so sure this kind of situation is conducive to a happy and well-balanced family life? To me it just sounds totally OTT.
 
seekerz said:
I think it’s beautiful and not at all selfish. I know few large families that have not been abundantly blessed; not necessarily in the material sense. Seems like, with maybe one exception, all the families I know with 5 or more kids are chock-full of responsible, productive members of society: the perpetual volunteers, the community leaders, the caring professionals - you name it. Must be something in the genes or the environment or both!
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That’s great, but there’s a big difference between 5 kids and 18. I think big families are great but I just honestly feel it’s unlikely each child is getting much individual attention… which children DO need. This is more like running a small boarding school.
 
richardsgirl said:
That’s great, but there’s a big difference between 5 kids and 18. I think big families are great but I just honestly feel it’s unlikely each child is getting much individual attention… which children DO need. This is more like running a small boarding school.
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Not all these kids are kids!! The oldest is 23, how much individual attention do you think she needs on a daily basis? If they had 18 in 23 years the next 5 or 6 siblings down must not be that much yonger.

Why would it be o.k. if they adopted? They could give more individual attention and afford adopted children easier than if they were biological kids? That doesn’t really make any sense.:confused:
 
richardsgirl said:
That’s great, but there’s a big difference between 5 kids and 18. I think big families are great but I just honestly feel it’s unlikely each child is getting much individual attention… which children DO need. This is more like running a small boarding school.
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So at what number, between 5 and 18, are there too many children?
 
I realise there must be a big spread in ages, but that doesn’t mean that the older children don’t also need their parents. Not so much the 23 year old, but what about the teens? That is a very difficult time and I know that I needed my parents a lot when I was that age. But I just can’t see that mum & dad would be able to give much of their time to older ones when they’re so much tied up wit the little ones. I just can’t see how it would work on a practical day-to-day basis and I’m not sure how kind it is on these children (I am sure that each one is absolutely precious though of course).
I am not trying to be negative here, I am a pro-life Catholic and I love children but I don’t understand why it’s such a great virtue to have quite this many kids. It’s nowhere in the Catechism! In fact the Church says it is responsible to plan your family as long as you are using licit means. A smaller family can be just as Catholic and ‘open to life’ as one of these proportions.

Also I never said anything about it making a difference if they’re adopted, I think you must have misunderstood me.
 
HouseArrest said:
So at what number, between 5 and 18, are there too many children?
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Well, I realise this is just a personal opinion but 10 would be my cut-off. I don’t see how I could take care of more than that and give them everything they need.
 
richardsgirl said:
I realise there must be a big spread in ages, but that doesn’t mean that the older children don’t also need their parents. Not so much the 23 year old, but what about the teens? That is a very difficult time and I know that I needed my parents a lot when I was that age. But I just can’t see that mum & dad would be able to give much of their time to older ones when they’re so much tied up wit the little ones. I just can’t see how it would work on a practical day-to-day basis and I’m not sure how kind it is on these children (I am sure that each one is absolutely precious though of course).
I am not trying to be negative here, I am a pro-life Catholic and I love children but I don’t understand why it’s such a great virtue to have quite this many kids. It’s nowhere in the Catechism! In fact the Church says it is responsible to plan your family as long as you are using licit means. A smaller family can be just as Catholic and ‘open to life’ as one of these proportions.

Also I never said anything about it making a difference if they’re adopted, I think you must have misunderstood me.
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I’m sorry, I wasn’t directing that comment at you, it was another poster who posted above you, making a comment about adopting more children instead of giving birth to them.
 
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