Why less is better

Lim: Why less is better
By Melanie T. Lim

You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to understand that less kids is better than more.

Despite what others say that our burgeoning population has nothing to do with our increasing poverty, I still contend that even with other factors contributing to the problem, less is still better than more.

Less kids means less expenses, less problems, less stress. It’s simple Math.

Mr. A earns P6,000 a month and has a wife and child to support. Mr. B earns P6,000 a month and has a wife and five children to support. Whose life do you think will be better?

Of course, you could be netting P500,000 a month and be a lousy parent to your one child while your driver who earns P5,000 a month can quite possibly be a much better parent to his three children. Great parenting, after all, has nothing to do with the amount of money you have in your bank account.

Still, all things being equal, the one with less kids would more likely be a better parent by being able to provide a better life for his wife and children.

Most people always think of ways to increase their income and that’s not necessarily wrong. But sometimes, increasing your income is not feasible. In such case, you might want to change your perspective of things. You might want to think instead of decreasing your expenditures.

And having more children is NOT the way to do this. Of course, if you already have children, I don’t propose you give some of your children away or worse get rid of them in some other expedient manner. But you could think of putting an END to having MORE children in the future.

This is the reason why planning for the size of your family is important. While planning, you might want to be firm on one thing: the sex ratio of your kids. I cannot count the number of stories I’ve heard about how a wife came to be with six kids because she had five daughters in a row and she and her husband had been waiting for a son all along. This insanity of having a “perfect family” needs to be stopped. Besides, perfection has nothing to do with having X number of sons and daughters who may all turn out to be bums and nuts.

There are those who say that more children bring more joy. That may be true. But they bring more misery too. The fact of the matter is that the greater the number of people living in one house, the greater the possibility of conflict. This is why when you live alone—-other than those of the teleseryes you watch, there are no conflicts.

But when you live with an entire clan, you can be sure there will be word wars and fist fights—-because more people means more personalities who will take different positions on every issue from the war in Iraq to how much sugar you should put in your coffee.

I’m not saying, don’t have kids. I’m saying, have less rather than more. It’s not just about the number of mouths to feed, it’s also about the number of hearts to heal. I can see the old folks raise their eyebrows and click their tongues, saying, “I had six children. They’re all perfectly fine.” Well—-that’s what you think.

Now, you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to figure this one out.