The world is crazily filled with people because we are asked to multiply. It is the essence of mankind. It is necessary to continue breeding one's young ones and there is nothing wrong with that.
What disturbs me most is when I hear words like;
"Children are already bringing what they will eat from heaven" or, "God said, go into the world and multiply".
Hearing this always makes me shake my head because though the latter is correct, I don't believe in the former as most people use that as a yardstick to overpopulate Earth.
I know you would say what is my business? I mean it is not like the children will bear my last name or would their existence affect me in a way?
While they won't bear my last name, it does indirectly affect me. Let me paint a scenario. Living in a Third-World Country where the minimum wage isn't enough for a person to get by as you would live from hand to mouth and such a person with the mentality that we are to go into the world and multiply decided to give have a family with 8 children which he couldn't cater for.
Even if he works 4 jobs, he'd struggle to make ends meet. The children don't get the luxury of having things like their peers. They will begin to feel bad and question their parents asking;
"Why can't I get a bicycle like Bernard? Why can't I get a new shoe like Rosie?"
The list goes on and it gets to a point where the father lashes out at the children telling them he is working day and night to give them food even if it's barely enough.
You would still wonder how it affects me. Let's say a family like that gets into a bus with you while they are going out, and they would struggle to pay for two seats on the bus. Imagine 8 children with probably one of their parents, then the mother keeps begging in the bus to help her carry some of the children.
Another scenario is finding yourself in the marketplace and you just see two children holding your hands pleading with you to give them money for food.
And this begot the question;
"If they manage to get their way with people giving them things, would it last forever?"
I saw a family of 8 children all girls, the father does menial jobs while the mother sells little foodstuff which she buys on credit to sell and in the end.
The people she buys from comes to her little kiosk outside their rented home to shout at her for not paying her debts. How could she? When the little foodstuff she buys on credit will be used to cater for her children, even if she manages to sell part of it, the money would not be enough to pay her debt and she still uses the money to get other things for her children.
Most times, people around her help her out when her debtors come calling. I can't say if that was what assured her that help will always come as we were all shocked when we found out she was pregnant again.
This is not because she is not educated on family planning methods as there is a local clinic that gives free health talks on these things. When asked why she would be pregnant despite all that is going on in her family, she responds by saying;
• Her husband wants a male child
•Children are a gift from God
• Besides, God said to go into the world and multiply.
These words get to me most times as I wonder when people would stop being gullible.
The resources in the country will barely be enough if we all decide to have a child per family. Now you are having 8 children plus the girl coming on the way. That's right, the child is also a girl. So I wonder will she keep on giving birth until she gets a boy even if she ends up birthing 25 children?
Yes, I agree that Children are a gift from God and that we are to go into the world and multiply but I think we should minimize the way we multiply. You and your partner equals two, when you multiply that by two children equals a family of 4 ( 2 × 2 = 4 ).
Well, I guess that's my personal opinion as we also have some people giving birth to lots of children and they can cater to every single one of them. I think the bottom line is we should give birth to the number of children we can afford to care for even if unfortunately something turns worse for the person financially for some time, they can pull it off before they become stable again.
Thank you all for reading.