RE: Children talk by Neil L. Anderson

This was the topic in Priesthood, and since my wife is expecting, it actually meant a lot to me and I feel like a TBM in this regard since I am pushing beyond the new average of 3-4 children in the faith.

I wasn’t always this way. I only wanted 3 to begin with. I put of having kids for 8 years so I could finish my education, travel the world, and go on road trips, and to feel free. I wasted a lot of time. My education is squat now, and I find myself working on another degree in a more practical and monetarily rich profession. This time I have more on my plate, but I am able to do it reasonably well. I even found myself telling my wife that she should put off a surgery to prevent more child rearing since the Lord might want us to have another. I almost couldn’t believe myself. I changed from No way, to it’s okay.

To say the truth I didn’t want to have many kids and be a super authoritative jerk to them like I thought my dad was to me. I think domineering parenting was a big reason why I didn’t want that many children. I didn’t want to repeat the cycle of being overly domineering, and I kept justifying not having a lot of kids. A lot has changed since my ideas back then.

I know to some people this talk may have been offensive. We have different views, different circumstances, and different upbringings. I almost found myself advocating for polygamy today since the statistic for the 40% of the children born today are born to unwed mothers. How many of those children have to be put up for adoption? How many of those children become in and out of foster care? How many of those women have addictions to drugs? How many in the 1% could take care of additional households and children if they felt such compassion? Was this the reason why polygamy was once sanctioned, to prevent unwed mothers and ensure that every child born has a mother and a father? I noticed my views getting very stretched by one talk. I’m not advocating polygamy, but at least I can see how it could be justified to alleviate social ills in society if instituted correctly and followed correctly.

I started thinking about all of these social ills in the world today. Wow, it was an enlightening Sunday, and I feel better for it.