The basic question is: How does a Catholic family get married at age 18 or 20, have one child two years apart for 20+ years, feed them, clothe them, educate them to grade 12 (at least) and then after all that is done, retire without dumpster diving?
I just can’t reconcile Catholic theology together with today’s economy.
My parents were not Catholic, but they married when my mother was 19 and my dad was almost 21. They have eight children who are each about two years apart, with a larger age gap between the current youngest and baby number 9. My mother is a stay at home mom; my father has done a variety of things and has not always been employed due to circumstances beyond his control. If he had always had a good steady job we would have had no problems at all. So far, it seems that the plan is for us to be homeschooled until high school and then go to the local public school. I am currently in college with scholarships, grants, and loans under my own name and I am basically supporting myself aside from toiletries, needed clothes, etc. which my parents pay for because they want to. My family rents a house from my grandmother, and my parents are hoping to buy it someday. Absolutely no one has their own bedroom. We don’t have a lot of fancy toys except those we buy with Christmas or birthday money or with money we earn, we hand down clothes, my mom uses coupons, we have received government assistance at times.
We have never had the water or electricity cut off. We have always had food to eat. We have always had a roof over our heads and beds to sleep in. The only disadvantage to homeschooling was that we couldn’t afford to do any kind of co-op thing because all the ones we knew of in our area cost quite a bit of money. We have library cards and read voraciously. We have cell phones, computers, TVs. We are RICH compared to people in third world countries. I am unspeakably glad that I grew up this way, because it made me into the person I am. I know I don’t have to have a whole bunch of STUFF to be happy. Stuff does nothing. Why do I need a fancy house? I would always be afraid of messing something up. I’d rather have the kind of house my parents have.
(Also, about having so many siblings: I adore my siblings. They mean I’ve had five “babies” so far – the ones I helped take care of. I’m incredibly excited about the one that’s coming because this one I’m old enough to be the mother of, and that’ll be a new perspective I never had before. I think having siblings has helped prepare me for future motherhood – I’ll have some idea of what I’m getting into!)
The kind of situation you described can work. It does work. Retirement’s a ways away for my parents. I don’t know where they’ll be then, but I know they will be okay.
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