It has nothing to do with what the parents can afford. The fact is that the PLANET cannot continue to support such unbridled population growth! If you love chidren so much that you've got to have six or eight, ADOPT!! There are MILLIONS of them who need loving homes and parents. Anything more than two of oyur own biological offspring (some would even say one) is nothing but gross selfishness, and it's going to destroy this planet.
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Name : Diane Tabbott, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Presbyterian, Age : 60, City : Jacksonville, State : FL Country : United States, Occupation : webmaster, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, I believe that large families are everyone's business. The world is becomeing more and more over-populated, including the United States. Soon enough there will not be enough food or water to support the increasing numbers of people. I would like it if all people practiced zero population growth (1 to 2 children per family).
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Name : Adrienne Acoba, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 48, City : Tucson, State : AZ Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, Hi, I am one of those who do silently groan when confronted with people who have many children. Of course, it is none of MY business, and more power to you. We often assume it takes a lot of money to raise children, so we think that unless the family is financially well-off, we may very wrongly assume that the family is getting public assistience. Or, we may assume they are connected with a religion that preaches breeding large families, or teaches against birth control. We may assume that the man/father of the house claims dominion over the wife, and forces her to have many children to satisfy his macho ego. After all, childbearing can be hard on a woman's body, and might make it more difficult for her to persue any outside career opportunities. Some men of large families do say things like they are used to being in one, so they want as many children as possible. Many people believe that less intelligent people have large families, or else they wouldn't have them.
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Name : G-Thomas21735, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : Black/African American, Religion : non-denominational christian, Age : 41, City : Sierra Vista, State : AZ Country : United States, Occupation : sales, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, Most environmental problems come down to overpopulation. Water problems, overfishing, etc. So I am opposed to large families. Especially here in the United States. Each person in the United States uses approximately 8 times the resources of a person in a third world country. So a family with 3 kids (5 people total) uses the resources that a 40 person family uses in another country. Having said that, people should be allowed to have as many kids as they want. It is a free country.
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Name : Cliff31972, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 40, City : Santa Barbara, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Clinical Research, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, With the world population approaching 7 billion, then 8 billion, the size of families all around the world is a 'problem' for all of us. Over-population is a very serious concern. Water, food, clean air, sewage treatment, social services, education, you name it. Everything we need and long for is finite. Large families are often viewed as irresponsible and even inconsiderate to the rest of the population who cares enough to keep family sizes down. It has also been said that parents often have children to satisfy their own egos. If this is the case, larger families might equate to larger egos, and the need to satisfy them. Something to think about. Further, when religion enters the equation--for instance as resistence to birth control because that religion's God says so--another level of insensitivity is introduced. Not everyone believes in that person's religion. Simply put, if we are to survive, long-term, on this planet, we must resppect the rights and needs of all other people and the planet itself. So, these are not ethnic or racial comments based on the undesirability of large-families, but rather a basic respect for life.
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Name : Glenn21501, City : Boone, State : NC Country : United States, I'm the oldest of 4 children, but my parents came from much larger families. I think it's weird and unsettling to see families nowadays with more than 3 kids. Part of it is definitely that it seems very wasteful, since Americans *do* use much more than our fair share of the earth's resources. Part of it is because while it made sense 100 years ago for farmers to have lots of kids - (1) many children didn't survive to adulthood; (2) kids were needed to work alongside the parents; and (3) take care of the parents when they were too old to work - most people in the US no longer *need* 4+ kids. Continuing to have kid after kid, to me, just seems like unthinking selfishness. However, I would not make comments to anyone about how many kids they have (or don't have). That's rude and obnoxious. My husband and I have chosen to have no children.
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Name : Mychelline, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Pagan, Age : 38, City : Indianapolis, State : IN Country : United States, Occupation : environmental scientist, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, I agree that it's no one's business if someone else has a large family. However, you are asking why someone would make disparaging comments about a large family. Here are two reasons I can think of... You are taking more of the earth's resources than is your share. There are those that believe there should be zero population growth. Two parents should have no more than two children. This is considered a responsible life style since the earth may not be able to support many more people. The children may suffer since the parents will not be able to adequately support a large number of kids. That is financially support and emotionally support them. A parent's wages can only go so far, and a parent's time can only be split so many ways.
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Name : Lance, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Presbyterian, Age : 52, City : Seattle, State : WA Country : United States, Occupation : Software Engineer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I am also Catholic. I am assuming this is what has prompted your question... I don't have anything against a large family - so long as my tax dollars do not have to pay to support them. Part of responsible parenting is having both the financial and emotional resources to provide for all of your children. If you lack in either catagory, my tax dollars may be called on to subsidize your choices either while your children are small or later in thier life when they cannot afford to support themselves due to a lack of education. Your ability to provide adequate emotional support for each of your children is also important in producing well adjusted, contributing members of society. The more children you have, the less you have of yourself to spread around. A child that rarely has the undivided time of the parent, suffers. Again, I don't have anything against large families, but I think a prudent, loving parent takes more into consideration than relegious views developed thousands of years ago.
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Name : Christine32072, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 37, City : Clinton Twp., State : MI Country : United States, Occupation : Manager, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Upper middle class, I am a 34 yo single woman who has never had the slightest urge to have a child. I do, however, have six cats. People nearly always act like I'm crazy when they hear this, but twenty cats are less troble than one kid. I guess when I say 'Do you know what causes that?' I'm trying to be funny and also expressing my genuine lack of understanding about why on earth people want to create another human being who will dominate their life for two or more decades. And actually, what I usually say when I hear someone has more than 4 kids and/or siblings is 'Are you Catholic?'
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Name : j21150, Gender : F, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Atheist, Age : 34, City : chicago, State : IL Country : United States, Occupation : Healthcare, Social class : Middle class, There are a couple of reasons why some people disapprove of large families (I disapprove strongly myself.) One is that the population of the earth has gotten extremely high, and if people don't stop having large families the only other way to deal with it is the traditional one of wars and plagues. The other is that the rest of us do end up paying some support for all those children, if nothing else by property taxes to support their educations. Often there is more, though: welfare, publicly paid health care, school lunch programs, etc. None of this, however, means people aren't being rude when they make condescending comments to you.
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Name : Andy-L, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 42, City : Plano, State : TX Country : United States, Occupation : IT, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, I agree with you that it is sad that many people look down at large families. Some large families produce criminals, dead beats and generally undesirable characters. These are the families that reproduce like rabbits. However, the contrary is also true, that some large families produce doctors, lawyers, missionaries, and provide a familiy of people of good character. We need more of such people. I know that some people find raising one or two children to be taxing and tiring. But I have only praise for the responsible parents who are willing to sacrifice to raise a family of 6 or 10.
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Name : A-Urbonas23966, City : Edmonton, State : NA Country : Canada, I agree with you, in part, that prejudiced concerns about being 'outbred' motivates some people to criticize large families, however, some who work in social services/environmental work feel that over-population is a very real problem. The more people that this planet has to care for puts a strain on everything from food production and distribution to animal habitats. While I am a staunch advocate of family planning, I would never make rude comments, or excuse those who do. In that I support your complaint.
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Name : Evan Wolf, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Unitarian, Age : 27, City : New Orleans, State : LA Country : United States, Occupation : Teacher, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, While I'm well aware that in America we have families that could take care of 5, 6, even 7 children (my family being an example) we all have a duty not to burden the planet more than it is already. Instead of spending thousands more a year on an extra child, why not send the money to a third world family that could really use it?
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Name : Andrew19445, City : Denver, State : CO Country : United States, 
AEParticipant
I don't hear that concern too often, and I have worked with the public in crisis for nearly two decades. Where and when I hear comments tend to be when someone is single, has 5 or more children, receives AFDC, an SSI check for themselves and several children, Food Stamps, Section 8 Housing, Medicaid with no copays or deductibles, & government day care. This problem is rampant in the South and is a huge tax burdon. The 'Welfare to Work' concept has huge faults. But more to the question is: Why was high school not finished? Where are the job skills? Is the mom (or dad) willing to earn their respective GED and head on to vocational training? Where are the fathers and why are they not paying child support? How can we break the cycle of generations of a family living off the government? I came from a large family and no one ever said anything negative about the size of the family. But then again, no government money was used to help raise us. Times are very different now. Fiscally, the U.S. is presently at an all-time low for those living in poverty and those that are middle class. It is best not to pass judgment, especially if you do not know the family in question's situation.
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Name : AE, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Lesbian, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Jewish, Age : 38, City : na, State : TN Country : United States, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, It's because they are rude bigots who cannot understand nor tolerate anything they are not used to, or that they conceive to be economically 'inefficient' or out of style (and respect to begin with). While there are lower-class 'welfare'-type families in which promiscuity is rampant and a child has many half-brothers and -sisters, many large families exist because of the generosity of the mother and father, often in response to the requirement of their religion (and natural law). Rather than 'limit it' to one or two for selfish reasons or economic opportunity, they choose to accept the gifts God gives them, and should be honored for that. You can talk about a 'burden to society', but in many of the devoutly religious families these children come from, they are raised to be anything but that. A child is not a cost, a child is a gift, and society must realize that. A few rare ones might claim the couple is exacerbating the so-called 'overpopulation' problem, but realize we have the sufficient resources to sustain the current and a growing population, at least those which I know of - food, space, etc., especially in the United States, where you and I are from, a land that still has endless wide open-spaces and ag. surpluses. So basically, ignore what these people say.
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Name : Jacob, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, Age : 18, City : Hermantown, State : MN Country : United States, Occupation : Family Business, Education level : High School Diploma, Social class : Middle class, 
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