When Eight ISN'T Enough

People are asking: Is the mother of octuplets – on top of (literally!) her other 6 kids – a “Motherholic”?

Instead, I would say this is "Birth-aholisism" if anything. To mother is to raise, protect, care for, educate, cherish. This woman hasn't shown that desire as far as I can see. She's into having -- owning -- making babies. Giving birth and creating many babies. It does seem like an addiction.

What concerns me more is our comparisons to the old days and in poorer countries where large amounts of children were/are common. In rural areas, the more hands to work the land the better.

This is not her case! In fact, it is not the case anymore in many countries like the US because our means of production have changed. Because America is fully capitalist.

We don't give birth anymore to "potential workers for our household."

We give birth to wage slaves. We give birth to future consumers who'll cry out for more gadgets, more take-out, more cable channels. We give birth to more Americans who will need to PURCHASE their food, their health, their education, their clothes. No amount of children will assist a household in creating, producing that stuff anymore.

"More kids" does not result in "More food harvested" anymore. "More kids" no longer means your family creates more product. In America 2009 it means higher and higher demand for more energy consumption, more electronic toys, more food to eat, more land taken from endangered species, more imbalance. And more demand for others to help you.

Is this the kind of economy where people should be asked or expected to assist such extreme need? Born of total self-obsessed disregard for the struggles of most Americans already?? Which is still a drop in the bucket considering the enormity of the WORLD food crisis? Rioting around the world last year over the lack of FOOD?

A few years after Hurricane Katrina/Bush, we still haven't been able to get all those devastated families back on their feet. THEIR situations, loss, suffering are due to a catastrophe brought on NOT by their own making but government policy. Why should anyone feel compelled to assist someone in raising 14 children that were PURPOSELY produced for one adult alone? Is it considered a true "need" if you can't care for kids you brought here on purpose, knowing your lack of resources?

And would it have been any better if this were a wealthy family? Tough question for some. I'd say it still doesn't solve the issue of creating more humans needing resources that could be put elsewhere -- for humans ALREADY in need, due to no fault or choice of their own.

I propose these names for the Miracle 8:

GameBoy
Pampers
DayCare
McDonald's ("Mac" for short)
SoccerUniform ("Su" for short)
PhysicalTherapy ("PT," for theyears of special services many of these babies will need)
DesignerJeans ("DJ")
Papparotzi ("Papi."

Since they'll all grow up in a fishbowl, they may as well get used to cameras and Insider Edition reporters. They can thank their self-absorbed mom for that later. Maybe when one grows up and sues her for the cost of decades of therapy. Paris Hilton, move over...)

Octuplets, Oh My!

Fine print first: I'm a single mom with no family nearby except my ex husband, and our son has special needs. Thus I am always going to be quick to say, "It can be much harder than you imagine to raise a child." I hoped for two, had one that was challenging, then separated and said, "Wow, this is really all i can handle if I wish to do justice to this child that I CHOSE to bring to Earth." So he's an Only.

Meanwhile back at the ranch, some folks think about "having babies" and their right to do so -- without ever considering they are actually "raising children towards adulthood" and taking on huge responsibilities. Thirteen-year old girls in record numbers want to have a baby -- some are even MORE short-sighted and say they want a "baby BUMP" like Jamie Lynn Spears. They never say they want to "bring another human onto the Earth" or "raise a child for 18 years to become a great world citizen." I have heard people say they plan to have 4 or 5 "because i can." WTF kinda attitude is that?!

One of my biggest complaints about mainstream American culture and ideology is that we are taught to scream for our "rights" -- while ignoring the responsibilities that logically are married to those rights. "My right to freedom of speech" to many Americans means they can spout off mindlessly or insult anyone. What about their responsibility to use their voice for the good of humanity in ways small and large? To speak truth? To spread kindness and honesty with that voice? Is that what motivates our most vocal "free speech advocates" like Larry Flynt or "Mancow"?

Similarly the debates about things like family planning seem to focus on EITHER rights OR responsibilities. And of course that very American concept of "It's none of your business!" If someone wishes to collect dozens of Care Bears I say go nuts. You don't need to justify that, as the Bears are not dependent upon you to provide their human needs and protect their human rights. Seeing as they are not human...

However, having a baby on THIS planet means you don't just GET something. You become the primary agent through which the child's rights must be protected and needs must be met. And simply by being born, those little humans HAVE RIGHTS. So if you cannot protect those rights, including meeting basic human needs, in my opinion you do NOT have the right to bring them here as dependents of yours.

Call me a communist, but why should such a big decision that involves adding citizens to our human community become suddenly a completely private matter? Why SHOULDN'T people counsel and critique this decision? It is, in fact, OUR planet that has just gotten a tiny bit heavier. And hungrier.