My parents birthed the number of children than the present time might think of as many. Myself and my siblings. And I have(and still) think of it as cute. I would learn from my siblings that they never lacked life basic necessities(i never lacked too), which is mostly the basis upon which couples are asked to not give birtth to too many kids. Inorder that they can adequately cater for them.
We are an average family and my parents polled in their resource to give a fairly comfortable life. We fed well, wore nice outfits and attended good private schools - the best in our vicinity - inspite of the huge fee.
Things have changed. Not for bad. We're all grown now and taking care of one another and sort of parenting our parents. As my dad would sometime say, the economy has taken a bad turn and it once made me wonder if he(and my mum) would have been able to give us the life they did if we had been born in this present time. Maybe. Or maybe not so well. I know they'd still have given their best in such a situation knowing what high taste they have for us. Still, I think it would not have been as easy. It was easy then, Somehow, because they could afford to.
Like I said at the start of this article, I found the number of kids my parents birthed really cute. And not once, I'd imagined how much fun life would have been if they had birthed more(enough to make a complete football team number, maybe).
I've also thought for myself what life would be like if I had that many number of kids. But I let it just remain a thought. Nothing taken to mind. It's nice to think about what life would be like when everyone is almost grown but we know what time the major expenses are incurred.
Last I was talking to a relative in diaspora, she mentioned that when a child comes of a certain age, the government takes over the responsibility of catering for that kid. I found it cool but I couldn't picture that scenario playing out in my country. The most of the government funds will go into child-care. People birth far too many kids. Amusing thing is, those who are barely surviving and those in the lower end of the economic ladder take the lead. You go out and there are tons of homeless, hungry, miserly looking kids. It's terrible. Most wealthy people have fewer number of kids even when it's evident that they can comfortably afford to have and cater for more.
While I think parents should plan out their families and have access to family planning treatment, I don't think there ever should be restriction to how many children a couple can have. If that sort of power is left to the government, it would likely not end well.
The only reasonable restrictions(which would not be restrictions per se but penalties) should be there to stop people from having kids they cannot adequately cater for.
Anyone should be let the power of his/her own body autonomy and the will to birth kids but that should be backed by the knowledge that right to life comes with responsibilities. If any cannot look after and nurture their children, then they have no business having them. The government should focus on more bigger things than policing people's reproduction.
Thing is there are lot of questions and what-ifs should the government throw in their weight. Questions like;
What would happen if someone had more thannthe allotted number of kids? Would the baby be taken away? Would people be made to get sterilized if they have their allotted bumper of children? Would the woman be the only one to face the restrictions or would the man get a vasectomy too? If a child(ren) dies from an illness or accident, will the parents be allowed to have more children - as a replacement maybe? If a person who has no kids gets married to a man/woman who already has children(the allotted number), would they be allowed to birth kids of their own? What happens if a person who is allowed to birth just two kids, gives birth to triplets on first pregnancy? On and on, the what-ifs go.
You see, this is quite a complex situation.
Currently there are no laws around the number of kids a family can have in my country, at least there's none that I know of.
And even if there were, it would take a million years to get people to conform to the rules. I f there was punishment of confinement, more than half the landmass of the country would be made jail.
Government should face government business and put all of the imperative Healthcare, education and security necessities in place, not forgetting family planning treatments/options. And anyone who birthstone than they can cater for should have to bear the cross. Importantly, as a better alternative, they should be made to face penalties if they birth kids and let them out on the streets to toil and suffer at tender ages. Cause, that in itself is child abuse.
Thanks for gracing this post.
Greetings!