Is Eight Enough?

Last summer I was at the pool, 5 or 6 months pregnant, with 7 children in tow.  Erin, the best swimming instructor ever, let out one of her awesome laughs and said "is it 'Eight's Enough'?"
Now, in case it hasn't been made apparent yet, I'm hopelessly behind on cultural norms.  My husband had to inform me that this was the title of a TV show.  I pretty much guessed as much, but I totally struggled to respond in a comprehensible or appropriate manner.  I think I might have said a sort of half-laughing "we'll see…"  I think I might have thought "Heck, one is enough!" It's not really about "enough".

I've beat on this subject before, but you see I was out on a walk yesterday and my kids asked to go past the "dog lady".  She is a very nice young mom, probably 7 years younger than I.  She has two children and  four dogs.  Did you flinch? FOUR dogs!  Big ones too.  A lab, two spaniels, and some shih tzu mix that isn't really big.  Yes, but see, that's ok, because she's some pre-vet degree animal person.  And so it's cool for her to have four dogs, but I'm crazy if I have four kids.  I'll stop being snarky.

We chatted nicely about her dogs (because, really, I'm a dog person too).  And then she looked at my kids and said "I can't believe how good their being for you. I mean, I can't imagine being that outnumbered."

And then (since I'm apparently always at a loss for words at moments like these, buckling under the pressure to be a witness to the entire gospel of life in one witty comeback) she added, referring to her dogs and two children ,"I guess I'm outnumbered six to one, but four of those seem easier." (I was pretty much rendered silent as my mind grappled with my reaction to a woman who houses four dogs yet marvels at a mother on a walk with four children).

Ok, seriously now.  Comparing children and dogs, even in terms of the work they require, is just not a good idea.  I love dogs. Cute, cuddly, loyal, protective. I get it.  Kids? Whiney, snotty, poopy. I get it.  But noooo way.  Kids may not be "easier" than dogs, in the sense that you can't just shove them in a kennel or re-home them if it feels like things aren't working, but they are actually rational and they do have immortal souls that will live for all eternity!!!  Some things aren't comparable.

Since I am not eloquent enough to elaborate on the importance of the issue I sense is at hand in our society, I'm going to have to dump a heavy Chesterton quote on you.  It encapsulates something of what I'm after when I am exasperated at the reaction of so many in our society when confronted with children of even small numbers.  They are just surprised that anyone could ever consider having more than one or at most three.  I think they could raise their estimation of the greatness of human life.

(From The Weight of Glory)
"It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which,if you say it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree helping each other to one or the other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilites, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all of our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. nations, cultures, arts, civilizations - These are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit - immortal horrors or everlasting splendors."--G.K. Chesterton