It is my sincere but not completely cemented opinion that each individual should have children according to his or her pocket size.
Why do I have this opinion and why isn’t it cast in brick yet?
The reason is because I am also still trying to wrap my head around it fully, to consider the different schools of thought possible and then be firm in what I adopt.
Truth is, many of us would never have been born if our parents adopted such an idea. For example, my parents didn’t have the luxury of owning a brand new car until my final year in high school.
Which means that up until 2005 (when we became ajebo), I and my siblings were born and nurtured by faith. I remember how my mom and dad worked tirelessly to ensure that we lacked for nothing…
So you see where my dilemma originates from.
There’s a good chance of survival if you choose to have more kids than your income can comfortably cater for, at the moment.
“You may be poor today, but rich tomorrow, when it is too late to give birth to extra children.”
However, there are many, especially in this part of the world, who struggle till the end of their lives. They die and leave children with nothing but more struggles and the option of crime or prostitution etc.
I’ve seen women walking hurriedly on the streets of Lagos, heavy baggage in one hand, another on the head, one child strapped to the back, another held in one hand and two others holding each other.
She constantly shouts at the little ones to hurry up and walk faster.
They all seem like one very big badly packaged bundle moving sluggishly in an ocean of pedestrians… trying to catch a danfo bus, offering cheaper fares.
My oh my! How on earth can such a woman be happy. How can she successfully treat these children as they should be treated? With tender love and care.
How can their father spend enough time with them, seeing as he has to work his butt off to feed the family, even if belle no go full.
I know this picture is that of a family belonging to the lower class in the economy but still…. I want to understand how people let such things happen.
A lady who owns a rickety salon two streets away from mine has 5 children. Two girls followed by 3 boys.
She recently closed down the shop because sales were next to nothing and they also had to move out of their house.
A storm took away the roof and left their belongings at the mercy of the rain.
Sigh…
I expected her to have stopped baby making after the third child (perhaps they were looking for a boy)…
But how did the other two boys come about? By error?
Why didn’t they take any meausres to prevent more pregnancies?
She had complained to my mom that her husband wasn’t letting her factory rest… I’m thinking… why didn’t she do something about it?
Is it because she’s not so educated, or she is afraid to ask her husband about family planning?
At times, these issues just mess up my thinking…
So do you think we should only have children based on our current financial status?
Or should we go ahead and have as many as we wish and thereafter work hard to give them a good upbringing?
Written By Mayowa Ogundele
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