benefits of large family i

The Benefits of a Large Family--I

The next few days (maybe even weeks) are going to be dedicated to

expounding on the benefits of a large family. So often, we are

bombarded with the "disadvantages" of having children, but no one

talks much about all of the incredible benefits! It's high time we

place the value of children in its proper place. Feel free to leave

your comment about your favorite benefit of having a large family, or

just benefits to having children in general. Of course most of these

benefits are based on the assumption that the children are raised in a

Christian home, and trained properly according to God's standard of

child-rearing.

Todays benefit is:

A large family supports the common adage that "many hands make light

work". It is so true! Every time someone gasps at all my children and

says, "I don't know how you do it! I can barely handle my two!" I

assume they don't have a clear picture of what a large family can look

like.

I have done less house work in the last few years than ever in my

life. And the work I do is less boring because I have so much little

help! Now, unless you are about to scoff at my "slave-driving", let me

clarify. Work is GOOD for children. In our entertainment-centered

culture, that theory is becoming less popular, and parents are often

accused of heaping unfair amounts of work on their poor, deprived

children. I'm not denying that somewhere, some family requires too

much of small children, but most of the time that is not the case.

In most families, the work and play and fun is healthily balanced and

the children learn proper responsibility, while sharing the work load

and developing a strong bond of unity between the members. Any time

people are a part of a team, having a common purpose with a common

goal, those people develop of sense of closeness that is unmatched by

any other. Working together as a family accomplishes that level of

unity.

A child as young as 1 or 2 can begin to pick up things off the floor,

and straighten their rooms under the direction of an older child. If

all the chores of a household are divided between mom and three or

four or five children, nobody has to do a lot of work. My five

year-old can completely clean the kitchen by herself, from the

loading/unloading of the dish washer, hand washing, drying, putting

away, sweeping the floor and wiping down the cabinets. What's even

better...she LOVES it! She begs to do it! AH YES, the joys of

children!!!