Author Topic: Baby Boomers and Family Size (Read 9137 times)

Matthew · « **on:** January 19, 2015, 07:22:21 PM »

Has anyone besides me noticed how many older (let's say Baby Boomer) couples at your local Trad chapel have 4 children or fewer?

I mean from the best to the worst of them, they all have 4 children or fewer. Any of them that had 5 were considered to have a "large" family.

If there was a Duggar TV show back then, it would have been a family with 6 children!

Today they are the pillars of our Trad chapels. They provide generous material and other support for the chapels. They usher, lead the Rosary, serve Mass, run the bookstore, and just about anything else that needs doing. They have lots of time and resources to be such pillars. I'm even going to assume they are in the state of grace, having confessed any sins from their past life and are currently striving to live the Catholic faith in an exemplary fashion.

I am NOT, I repeat NOT saying that they are hypocrites.

But that doesn't change the fact that they "cheated" in a way by not having the full number of children when they were younger. If they are materially well off today, it's because A) times were just easier back then, and B) they had less children to support so they had a chance to build up more wealth.

Anyhow, long story short, few (if any) Baby Boomers I've ever encountered could ever say to me, "Well here is how I did it..." because there is a fundamental flaw in whatever system they had: they didn't have the natural number of children God wanted to send (no birth control or NFP).

So besides the fact that the US Dollar is weaker now than in, say, 1970, we also are "handicapped" as it were because many young trads today are embracing the full package of morality, which includes having a large family AND homeschooling them so they aren't indoctrinated in the increasingly-evil public schools.

Homeschooling was *very* rare when Baby Boomers were parents. So was breastfeeding, home birth, and large families. See now what I have against that generation? Oh, and they also embraced Vatican II. It was up to that generation to accept it or reject it. So many of them loved it or had no problems with it.

Matthew · « **Reply #1 on:** January 19, 2015, 07:28:57 PM »

I use the analogy of the laborers in the vineyard.

Let's assume the men who came in at 9:00 AM were content with their 1 denarius, and were psyched up to NOT hold it against those who came in at 4:00 and only worked one hour until quitting time (5:00).

It's up to the master of the vineyard if he wants to be generous. It's his money, and after all I did agree to a denarius a day, right?

So on the way home, the All Day workers are walking next to the One Hour workers. They come across a man with a cart stuck in a ditch.

The One Hour workers, full of energy, immediately begin helping the hapless traveler. They call to the All Day workers and reproach them, "Aren't you going to help us do this good deed? What's the matter with your sense of charity?"

How would you feel if you were an exhausted "All Day" worker and had to hear this from a One Hour worker? Wouldn't that just be the straw that broke the camel's back?

Applying it to our actual situation --

Hooray for the Baby Boomers who can put lots of money in the collection plate, who have time to help out with various things, etc. but they shouldn't judge us youngsters, even if we can't do the same thing at 50 or 60, because frankly we were never in the same position. Ever.

If you rewind any of those Baby Boomers' lives back to my age, you will NOT have someone essentially in the same position.

Matto · « **Reply #2 on:** January 19, 2015, 07:48:34 PM »

My parents were baby boomers who grew up before Vatican II but went along with the changes. They only had three children. I am the middle child and the only traditional Catholic in the family.

Matthew · « **Reply #3 on:** January 19, 2015, 09:07:12 PM »

Quote from: Matto

My parents were baby boomers who grew up before Vatican II but went along with the changes. They only had three children. I am the middle child and the only traditional Catholic in the family.

In my entire life, I have only encountered or met maybe 2 families with kids "my age" who had more than 3 siblings.

At my independent Trad chapel growing up, there was only one such family. There were a couple "large" families with 5 kids.

I'm only bringing this up because it's such a solid demographic pattern/truth. It HAS TO have a bearing on countless real-world issues, from SSPX school funding, to parishioner psychology, etc.

About 3 dozen threads could be started from this one.

Mabel · « **Reply #4 on:** January 20, 2015, 05:51:27 PM »

Matthew's post resonates with me.

I just wrote out a long post and lost it. However, we have encountered the same people. Honestly, I don't know if it is possible to teach them, but they just do not understand what it takes to run a family in 2015. I do also think they are lovely, kind, edifying Catholics.

I always find housing to be the big issue. Housing is so complex these days, with big families, the over-reaching arm of the state, homeschooling, and all the other costs, it is such a huge decision. Most of the boomers tell you to buy a house and not rent. Just buy a house, it will be great. I don't think that taxes, homeschooling laws, how the children will be educated, or even van upgrades and such--things that keep us parents awake at night, ever cross their minds. I've tried to explain our situation but it is nearly impossible.