by 
The other day I was sitting at my desk when a coworker came up and saw some of the pictures of my children that I have hanging up around my office. From there, we got into a discussion about children, and how many people are having, and I was reminded of something that I’ve learned and something that I’ve read.
What I’ve Learned
There is really a cultural disconnect between living in the United States and living in other Western Countries when it comes to having children.
In the states, we’re still at or above replacement levels, and we still look at children as at least an accessory and at most a blessing and a gift. In foreign countries, children are looked at as a burden to the environment.
A missionary to Kiev, Ukraine, was in my house a little while back and he said that the fact that he has three children is a problem for a lot of people there. They castigate him, asking him what gave him the right to have so many kids, and told him that he should be thinking about overpopulation.
Right now, they should be worried about going out of existence!
What I’ve Read
And Mrs. Toni Vernelli (pictured above) even underscores this point even further.
Had Toni Vernelli gone ahead with her pregnancy ten years ago, she would know at first hand what it is like to cradle her own baby, to have a pair of innocent eyes gazing up at her with unconditional love, to feel a little hand slipping into hers – and a voice calling her Mummy.
But the very thought makes her shudder with horror.
Because when Toni terminated her pregnancy, she did so in the firm belief she was helping to save the planet. (Daily Mail)
So, she didn’t just go for an abortion and kill the child, but she made sure that she was sterilized to prevent getting pregnant in the future. As you can imagine, the husband’s delighted– and I don’t think it’s just for the stated reason that it’s her passion and basically her religion. After all, he was only her boyfriend when she had this done.
And so we’ve come full circle. Children and not just disposable or accessories, but in some cases they are predators– they are responsible for destroying our world. When in reality they are the ones that will carry on when we are not here, the ones that will find the new vaccines, the more efficient and new energy sources, and the ones that will love and care for us when we get old.
Well, at least she didn’t carry on getting pregnant and having abortions like they do in some countries (so I’ve heard).
It’s a strange logic that says the world is a bad and damaged place so I won’t have children. Surely having children and raising them to be respectful towards the Earth and other people, to be positive human citizens who are compassionate and thoughtful of others is the best way to make the world a better and more healthy place in the future?
I just love the twisted logic some people use to rationalize purely selfish behavior.
If Ms. Vernelli was truly a believer in the logic she espoused, wouldn’t the next obvious step be to remove herself from the population thereby reducing the planetary burden by the consumption level of an adult instead of only a child?
I wonder if she ever scolds her mother for making such a selfish decision as having a child (Herself) and burdening the planet.
As I said, these people are just hanging their selfishness on an environmental coatrack so they can sleep at night.
Buffy– really good point. One of the books that I was given after the birth of my second son was a book about raising Godly Seed, and it talked about the impact you can have with a large family– which is tangential to your point. If this woman truly wanted to make a difference, she could have had children and taught them to preach the envirnomentalist gospel to others– not to eliminate the race, but to fine cleaner methods.
Why is it that these people insist that there’s a problem with overpopulation while at the same time the statistics say that they’re not even able to replace themselves. As far as I’ve read, overpopulation is a myth.
I think you’re right Ad Tracker– it’s exactly what I though the boyfriend, and now husband, must have been thinking. “Yes, I’ll encourage you to get sterilized– then we can be intimate all we want without having to worry about getting pregnant!”
Actually, Min, this is very subjective, based on what country you’re talking about.
In China, for example, because each family can only have one child, children are VERY prized and valued. And when we lived there, people would be excited and look on in amazement that we could handle having 3 children. They would call me “Superwoman”… and the older women (who often, themselves, had had 3 or more children) would give me thumbs up. Children there are seen as a precious gift, because they are so (comparatively) rare.
Here in Turkey, where I currently live, and in Thailand (where we had our 3rd child), people can have as many children as they want, and they do limit their family size to two or three children, on average, but they LOVE children VERY MUCH.
So I think it is very subjective, depending on what country/region you’re talking about. I think your article hits the nail on the head for most European countries, and I don’t know much about African nations, but as far as the Asian countries that I know about, they are very much pro-family and pro-children, and value them very much.
Interesting discussion.
Jess