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The Children Question

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Clarissa

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I’m not interested in age gaps or affairs but look at the average number of children. It’s exactly what I’ve been saying.

Not having a lot of children isn’t about money. It’s about the way we understand what a human being is. That understanding is a unique and wonderful achievement of our great civilization. Let’s spit out the self-hating lies we’ve had stuffed down our throats and stand in awe of our incredible achievement. No, we don’t mass produce dispensable cogs. We do artisanal fine-tuning of unique gems.

If you have 6 kids, you are fine-tuning six gems. You are amazing. This isn’t meant to be a criticism of people in the West who have many children. I’m all for those people. But they can’t extract themselves from their civilizational context. We are all going to treat our children like rare gems and throw our whole being into their welfare. And those who don’t have children will treat the children of other people like rare gems. It’s unavoidable. It’s inside us.

Please stop fighting this and accept that it’s here and it’s great.

16 responses to “The Children Question”

  1. overgrownhobbit Avatar
    overgrownhobbit

    “We are all going to treat our children like rare gems and throw our whole being into their welfare. ”

    Yes. It is a Christendom thing.

    The “we” part is dubious. Children as rare gems (valuable property) is nothing new amongst aristos of any wealthy civilization. Children as pieces of the Divine entrusted to our care is novel.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Aristos never raised their own children. Even as late as the early twentieth century, British aristos, for example, sent their children away to boarding schools at an early age.

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      1. overgrownhobbit Avatar
        overgrownhobbit

        Like “we all” previously, “never” is doing heavy lifting in that sentence. The British alone are not up to the task.

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      2. Ileana Avatar
        Ileana

        …. with the result that few of them are really “educated”. That’s why they tend to marry personal trainers or failed actresses and go to trashy pop concerts.

        Liked by 3 people

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        1. overgrownhobbit Avatar
          overgrownhobbit

          It depends on how the aristos outsourced. Prize horses, working dogs etc. personally trained by assorted experts generally do well. Xerxes had a manual for the former if I recall correctly, and the 5 good Roman emperors were all the products of outsourced education. The hired tutors model is solid across the world and time, for those who could afford them.

          Could be an interesting research project.

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        2. Clarissa Avatar
          Clarissa

          They are also mental wrecks because children need to be with mom and dad to develop in a healthy way.

          Liked by 1 person

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  2. mosckerr Avatar
    mosckerr

    Addressed to my dearest beloved Government in Jerusalem.

    Bibi please Sir, keep your eye on the PRIZE. The strategic value “Land for Peace”, PM Begin returned the Sinai to Egypt and PM Sharon returned Gaza to Arafat’s PA. The strategic PRIZE of the Jewish State: SAMARIA SAMARIA SAMARIA SAMARIA SAMARIA SAMARIA SAMARIA etc.

    עת רצון, Israelis fight this War לשמה, NOW the time has come for “LAND FOR PEACE”, Arabs to return SAMARIA to Israel. NOW the time for Jerusalem to FIGHT to establish the PA Gaza-Palestinian Independat State! To return Gaza back to the government of the PA. To accomplish this FREE INDEPENDENT GAZA-PALESTINIAN STATE requires a complete population transfer of dhimmi Arab refugee populations transported from E. Jerusalem and the whole of Samaria to the PA independent Gaza Palestinian State.

    Bibi please Sir, keep your eye on the PRIZE. Remember President Trump’s Abraham Accords. Israelis do not need to sunbath on the beaches of Gaza. Removing the dhimmi Arab populations from E. Jerusalem and the whole of Samaria, the action taken by a ‘Great Power’ in the Middle East who has not only thereafter annexed the whole of Samaria to Israel, freed up a mass of territory within our borders to establish housing for the poor of our People, removed the pretext of “stolen lands” by which Arab states in the past condemned Israel, closed the mouth of UN imperialism: 242, 338, 446, 2334; but inserts the demand that the UN cease its Apartheid policy of refusing to recognizes Israel as a country of the Middle East!

    That Israel fights the current war to uproot Hamas, proves that Israel seeks “Land for Peace”; trade and military alliances with ALL Arab and Muslim countries in the Middle East and North Africa: the strategic interests of a ‘Great Power’ in the Middle East.

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  3. Avatar
    Anonymous

    Oh, come on, plenty of religious families with lots of kids essentially make their eldest daughters raise their younger siblings. That doesn’t seem like polishing of the gems or whatever metaphor you want to use.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      It’s great to have new readers on the blog. You are welcome here!

      I might have start retelling my life story from the start so people realize that my experience of raising my younger sibling in no way interfered with me being a total gem.

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    2. methylethyl Avatar
      methylethyl

      Why would you think that is specific to “religious” families?

      Or that it’s a bad thing?

      No two children, even in the same family, with the same parents, grow up in exactly the same circumstances. But many people seem to run on the assumption that the ideal we should be shooting for, is exact, precise, totally same-and-equal conditions for every single child. Why? It is not bad for one to be oldest, and another to be youngest. It’s just different– and the world needs all sorts.

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      1. Clarissa Avatar
        Clarissa

        Exactly. We weren’t a religious family. I raised my younger sister, and it was really hard. Sometimes extremely hard and scary. But I wouldn’t give up that experience for anything. It’s the defining experience of my life and I revel in it.

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        1. methylethyl Avatar
          methylethyl

          I wouldn’t call ours a “religious” family– my parents belonged to different churches and had a tense truce worked out not to evangelize us one way or the other.

          My older sisters were auxiliary mother figures to us– drove us to school, carted us around to their friends’ houses with them, sometimes cooked dinner when parents had other obligations… and tbh when we had school problems, friend problems, parent problems, needed advice on how to navigate adulthood, needed someone to talk to, they were our first choice, not our parents. We were close, and that relationship continued to be special to us long after we were all adults. In some ways losing my sister was like losing a parent and then some. My brother jokes that he did not have a mom and three sisters– he had a sister and three moms.

          I have no idea why that would be a bad thing.

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          1. Clarissa Avatar
            Clarissa

            My sister and I are also extremely close. It’s one of the most important relationships of my life. We’ve lived in different countries for 20 years but that did nothing to separate us. We know everything about each other’s lives, we are on the phone for hours every day. So yeah, I fail to see a problem here, as well.

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            1. methylethyl Avatar
              methylethyl

              Right? I try to cultivate good relationships between my own kids, because in my own mind, their relationships with each other are more important than their relationships with me. I’m temporary. If things go well, they’ll have each other long after I’m gone. So as a parent, I want them to ultimately be able to function well without me… but also be able to work with and emotionally support each other. My mother is kind of a difficult person, and my siblings were a huge help for me, in reaching functional adulthood. I can’t imagine life without them, we check in with each other nearly every day, either by phone or by groupchat, and visit surprisingly often given the distances involved. I wish my brother lived closer, because I think cousins are important too– but you can’t have everything.

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    3. Avatar
      Anonymous

      Yes, you and your sister both contain multitudes so “eldest daughters” refers to just you, “younger siblings” refers to just her, and 2 children is “lots of kids”.

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  4. Ileana Avatar
    Ileana

    My youngest are non-identical twins. Very different in looks, intellect and character, although they really grew up in extremely similar circumstances.

    Liked by 1 person

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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