Let's get something straight, nobody favors abortion

[hunter]

63. Your first and second point are very important.

My mom and dad had a mess of kids and it was celebrated by their community, mostly for religious reasons. My wife's family was the same. These were very Catholic traditions. My mom had aspired to be a nun until she crossed paths with a leering hard-drinking, chain-smoking priest she could not respect. Then she met my dad, and the two of them decided they'd practice serial procreation.

At some point my parents, and my wife's parents, realized that maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have more children than they could comfortably support, nor was it a good idea for the planet earth's natural environment. But practically speaking, it was stop before you have more kids than fit in a station wagon. Embrace birth control.

I was never hungry as a kid, but there were occasionally long periods of rice and beans and fish my dad caught, vegies and fruit from the garden, government surplus dairy products, and second-hand or hand-me-down clothing. When I was fifteen my mom and dad bought me an authentic pair of Levi 501 jeans new and it was the best present ever. Sadly I grew out of them quickly and my younger brother got to wear them the longest before he handed them down.

By the time I cared about sex, thanks to my parents, I knew most every practical thing I needed to know about sex, including birth control, safe sex, and the ability to recognize abusive relationships. Me and my siblings did not reproduce until we could do so in a responsible fashion, and our overall average is less than two kids apiece. The overall fertility of my wife's siblings is similar.