How many kids are too many?

[hyphenate]

15. I'm not really asking the government to interfere

only that in each person's own opinion, if people should realize their own ability to raise x number of children, should they stop having more than they think they can handle--not in terms of finances, but in terms of life and love.

I grew up with a part Irish-Catholic sensibility, and know that a lot of them want nothing to do with birth control, and big families happen more often. As long as they are capable of loving each child equally, that's great, but being human, do we have the nature to love each child totally and unconditionally, or is there always going to be one or two children who are favored over others?

I saw my sister-in-law always favor her younger son, praising him continuously, and always criticizing her older son. My brother tried to love them both equally, but he wasn't the primary parent in the equation. I've seen it elsewhere, too, where "Johnny" is such a good boy, and "Jimmy" is always picked on.

So the question, I guess, boils down to should parents make a committment to treating all their children as equally as they can, and stop having children when they realize that they can't love all of their children with the same amount of attention and affection.