If you can’t afford it with your earnings you probably don’t need it!

So I figure my 5 boys will some day be a wonderful resource in the world. They’ll support the aging population, know how to re-use what they have, buy only when they need something and have the money to do so, and they’ll value human life at all stages.

I came here by way of my friend’s blog. I may not agree with 100% of what you’ve said here, but I think you’ve hit on some very important issues. In fact, your points about hand-me-downs are something I wish I could share with the family members who (bless their hearts) keep throwing money at new clothes and new clothes at my kids. I love thrift-shopping, but never get to do it.

While it might make sense for someone who was already planning to upgrade their “clunker” to take advantage of this plan and purchase a more environmentally-friendly vehicle, for most people, this plan is useless. I think the government would be better served by putting that money into programs that teach or hire people to repair damaged clothing and the like in order to offer it for resale. You could bring in old or extra materials such as blankets or towels and receive a voucher toward repaired garments. Your discards would be used for patching. And there could well be an art to the reparations–just check out how people are making new out of the old and broken on etsy. Plus, people would be learning a skill.

For me, this also touched on an issue I have of wanting to be able to visit my family abroad and of having my children know them. I could have more children if I took advantage of used goods more, and I wouldn’t need to be concerned about money to fly around the world. Especially when combined with homeschooling. (For us, there is a much greater issue than money.) I’ll be thinking on what you said here. A very interesting post. Thank you.

People are complicated, yes, and there’s more to the world than two types. But there IS a palpable right and wrong, good and bad in this world.

I can easily direct you several stories proffered by environmentalists, and including Obama’s “science czar” where abortion and contraception and forcible limits on family size are the solution to “global warming.”

It’s not a generalization, it’s fact. So if we who believe in life and the right of the unborn to become the born and LIVE are offended by that, it’s not our fault.

The people here who are doing the bashing are the environmentalists who seek children as “eco misdemeanors” that need to be quelched or destroyed.

I’m old enough to remember the Ecology stickers all the hippies were sporting on their VW bugs and buses.

I’m old enought to remember “oh no, there’s a hole in the ozone layer…we’re all going to get skin cancer…let’s get rid of all the aerosol cans.”

I’m old enough to remember “egads, acid rain is destroying the paint on my new Porsche…let’s save the planet!”

And “Save the whales!” “Give a hoot, don’t pollute.” “Only you can prevent forest fires…”

Slogans for a time…and all noble sentiments. We are charged by God to be good stewards of this wonderful, wonderful world. But fear mongering is just that: Fear mongering.

I prefer hope…life is beautiful!

First…imagine a smiling woman, at peace, not angry in the least, having a glass of iced tea, listening to her little girls watching Caillou in the background. Now she’s typing:

Please peruse my blog. You’ll find that anger doesn’t take up much space in my life…it’s far too full of many other things: housework, home education, faith, family and fun. If you’ve perceived “bashing” of any sort, I do hope it is only in the realm of politics and what this current administration sees as one solution to our current economic crisis. Large families have been targeted for some time, with many in our government wishing to restrict reproductive freedom in every area except abortion…kill a baby, it’s okay. Have a baby, and you’re contributing to over population and wreaking havoc on the environment.

Promoting the cause of life is one area that brings me great joy. I’m truly sorry if the message you’ve taken from this post is one of vitriol and judgment, but having read and re-read this post, I have no statements to retract.

God bless you, and thanks for taking the time to comment.

I’m pro taking care of the Earth, but I’m also pro-family and a world that condones killing babies in the womb is ugly and full of the worst kind of pollution.

Great post!

Blessings,
Kate

I think your large family is lovely. I think your lifestyle is lovely.

I wish you didn’t have to bash other people in order to feel good about yourself.

Pray and wait…there is real comfort in knowing that God triumphs, isn’t there? May He have mercy on this president and all those who support his anti-life, anti-family, anti-Christ policies…

As Our Lord Himself said, “. . . You are not far from the Kingdom of Heaven” !!!!
My only question: How much longer until this imposter-president is impeached ?? (As seems to happen to all democratic presidents of recent memory) !!!

With prayers,

– Fr. Joseph Klee

Well said…it certainly takes a great deal of faith to swim against the current, these days. Thank heavens for faithful, faith-filled Catholics who are taking up the the cross with such generosity! May God open the eyes and hearts of all His children…

I know lots of DINK (double income, no kids) couples (some by circumstance others by choice) who have a lot more disposable income than we do. To what does that go? Stuff. Trips. More stuff. TV broken? Buy a new one! Bored? Go on a big, expensive trip! The thing that also surprises us is that a lot of these couples live in large homes (3+ bedrooms) on large lots while we live in a 4-family apartment building with no yard of our own and two (well, one and a soon-to-be-born) child. We’ll probably be in the same situation for subsequent children.

Now, that’s not to say these are bad people, or that there’s something inherently wrong with buying new or using your money as you see fit (we do these things). I am not advocating for laws that prohibit such activities, or prevent DINK couples from owning a large home. That’s their choice. But in addition to being contrary to Catholic teaching and our beliefs, it makes no common, logical sense to us to live so largely unless we had lots of children (biological and adopted) to share it with.

This is ultimately what the “green” movement boils down to: it’s not about saving the planet. It’s not about creating jobs or minimizing human impact on the Earth (because people do that already to save money).

It’s about control.

It’s about a culture that despises the nuclear family and children, that eschews the very real benefits of living as a community within the family unit (for the sake of living as an androgynous, indistinct glob of “community” where the ME factor is always first and foremost), that frowns upon self-sacrifice and personal responsibility and self-discipline as oppressive by-products of patriarchal/religious social conditioning seeking a subtle way to wield those anti-life, anti-family policies because being open and outright about it would be met with resistance. It’s about fighting the goodness and light of God by making man the god.

So they create a “crisis” of global warming, blame it on mankind, and hope that enough fall for the faulty science and alarmism to allow them to pass legislation that gives them the control they so desperately crave.

And a plank of that is demonizing large families as being “eco disasters”…

It made the front page of 4Marks…seems to have struck a cord!

You are delightful. Keep sayin’it!

~Kathy