Having many kids was all the norm a few generations ago years ago. Queen Victoria had nine children, forty-two grandchildren, and eighty-six great-grandchildren. Robert F. Kennedy had eleven kids before being assasinated at age forty-three. And slowly, we're seeing larger families become more popular again. The Duggars have nineteen born children. Heck even Brangelina have a brood of six, a feat for anyone in Hollywood. I imagine Christmas at any one of these homes (or castles) would be a large and boisterous affair.
Well I, too, come from a large family. And between my siblings and I, we have created 10 grandkids (and counting). So Christmases in my childhood home, and now my home, are always a wonderful opportunity for all of us to come together to celebrate Christ's birth and the gift of family.
Last year, we hosted the family Christmas dinner which included fifteen adults and ten children under the age of five. It was a joyous affair, and a busy one as you can imagine with all those people in our home. But I don't like the comments guests and others make, for instance "Wow, what a lovely and quiet Christmas we had this year- I like it much better than a big get-together."
Well to that I say: families come in all shapes and sizes, and if you don't like it, decline the invitation. But don't be a guest in a large-family home and then serve a back-handed insult like that. What would they prefer? That a sibling be excluded? Or perhaps one of the kids shouldhave been aborted? Or that Someone euthanize one of the elderly grandparents?
Making negative comments like the one I listed above are just hurtful. The sad part is that I hear comments made like this all the time during my workday. At the grocery store, at the office, at the kids' park. It's the typical anti-family sentiment that has been pervading our culture since the 60's.
Now I'm not suggesting that larger families are better than smaller ones. Not at all. But if you can't pull it together and celebrate as a whole family, big or small, for one day then why even bother having a family at all.
Perhaps, if these folks come from larger families they may have learned how to be more polite and courteous to one another. Because if you were to hurl a grenade like that, you'd get at least a few siblings setting you straight.
An old adage comes to mind: If you shake the tree, be prepared to rake the leaves.
Well, you shook. Now go rake!
.
Well I, too, come from a large family. And between my siblings and I, we have created 10 grandkids (and counting). So Christmases in my childhood home, and now my home, are always a wonderful opportunity for all of us to come together to celebrate Christ's birth and the gift of family.
Last year, we hosted the family Christmas dinner which included fifteen adults and ten children under the age of five. It was a joyous affair, and a busy one as you can imagine with all those people in our home. But I don't like the comments guests and others make, for instance "Wow, what a lovely and quiet Christmas we had this year- I like it much better than a big get-together."
Well to that I say: families come in all shapes and sizes, and if you don't like it, decline the invitation. But don't be a guest in a large-family home and then serve a back-handed insult like that. What would they prefer? That a sibling be excluded? Or perhaps one of the kids shouldhave been aborted? Or that Someone euthanize one of the elderly grandparents?
Making negative comments like the one I listed above are just hurtful. The sad part is that I hear comments made like this all the time during my workday. At the grocery store, at the office, at the kids' park. It's the typical anti-family sentiment that has been pervading our culture since the 60's.
Now I'm not suggesting that larger families are better than smaller ones. Not at all. But if you can't pull it together and celebrate as a whole family, big or small, for one day then why even bother having a family at all.
Perhaps, if these folks come from larger families they may have learned how to be more polite and courteous to one another. Because if you were to hurl a grenade like that, you'd get at least a few siblings setting you straight.
An old adage comes to mind: If you shake the tree, be prepared to rake the leaves.
Well, you shook. Now go rake!
.