Prompt # 16

    Back in the twentieth century, the average number of children born in a family was five or more. Yet, in the present there are about two children in every family. Many might say that two is an agreeable size for a family. Mostly, I would agree with that statement and I know you would ask the question why? Well the answer comes in a number of reasons.

      One reason why I say that two is a reasonable number is because of the economy that we are living in. Today having more than two children would be completely expensive. Imagine if you had more than two kids, was paid minimum wage salaries, and not only that, but lost your job, how would you be able to provide for your family? The answer is you wouldn’t; from buying clothes, groceries, items that the kids want, and then not to mention taxes, you would go completely bankrupt.  Also there are other reasons why.

       Another reason is because it’s easy to control the household when there are only one or two kids in the home. I say this because there is a better length of authority in the house than if a family had four or more. Instead of worrying about what every four or more kids are doing, a parent can be able to monitor the children easily. Not only that but it helps the child in the long run.

       Statistics have proven that there are a bigger percentage of children who come from a four person family to go to college and become successful in later life than a child that comes from a family of seven or more.  The reason for this is the fact that in a family of four, each child can get the same amount of attention as the other and interact with each other better. While children coming from a huge family sometimes will feel left out of the family due to the size of the family.  If it was smaller, there would be less signs of depression from loneliness and more signs of happiness.

      The last reason why is because it eliminates “the middle child syndrome”, that is most prevalent with most large families in the United States. “The middle child syndrome” is term to describe a child who is the third to be born in the large family, who tends to begin to show a behavior of depression, a feeling of not being wanted, and having poor attitudes towards their families and/or friends. With a family of four, both children would get the same amount of attention as the other.

      Now I’m not saying no one should try to have a big family as we did in the last century, but I caution the reader to think first about the choice before anything. Having a huge family requires a huge amount of responsibility and awareness to every child. It also requires of course the financial stability to handle the kids. I hope that once the reader reads this he or she will understand this.