How many kids are too many?

[hyphenate]

18. Yeah, the essence, I guess of what I'm thinking

I know that in the past, there were almost always more children being born in families because the mortality rate was so high, and even if a woman had ten kids, maybe half of them would grow to adulthood.

But you're right--trying to tell idiots that it's hard enough for any familiy nowadays to feed, clothe and equip 4 kids, it would be madness to have a large amount of them. And with more households, there is almost always two parents working, and the kids might be more neglected as a result.

I'm not advocating SAHMs everywhere, because most women I know want to make some money of their own, and it's also not realistic to expect a mom to be the main caregiver in a nuclear family anymore. But there should be a joint effort to pass the love and attention to every one of the kids as equally as possible.

Sometimes I wonder what happens when there is one child of many that ends up being perhaps a prodigy, or whatever, and suddenly the other kids are on the back burner while that one child is singled out for more affection or whatever. How can a normal group of kids understand that kind of lack if they're in a vulnerable age group?