Octuplets

I’ve been fascinated by the woman who recently gave birth to octuplets. It turns out that she had six fertilized embryos implanted, two of which split into twins thus resulting in eight births.

She already had six kids, so now she’s got fourteen -- all under the age of seven. Oh, and she’s a single mother who lives with her parents because she’s been on disability for the past few years.

The door-slamming in that house is going to be mind-boggling.

I also must admit that I’ve Tivo’d 17 Kids and Counting. It’s the weekly series featuring the Duggar family who have 18 kids, ranging from 21 years of age to 2 months. The worst thing I can say about the Duggars is that they home-school their kids and insist on teaching them that the world is only four-thousand years old.

I like kids. I really do. And there’s a part of me that’s always wanted to have a kid of my own. I haven’t done so because:

1. One needs female this-and-thats in order to produce a kid.

2. The kid might mess with my Tivo.

But the main reason I don’t have a kid is because they’re expensive. I make a nice salary but - - - kids are expensive!

I can see it now:

Kid: "Daddy, I want a Wii-Pod for Christmas!"

Me: "People in hell want ice water."

Yes, the Duggar kids all seem to be well-provided for. The family is frugal, they buy second-hand clothes, and, admirably, they don’t buy anything on credit. Moreover, they've raised a bunch of kids who seem to have been instilled with an astounding amount of altruistic values at a very young age.

Such a selfless family value seems to be lacking an awful lot these days. There is a lot that I admire about the Duggars, and yet - - -

They have 16 kids under the age of 18.

What if they got divorced and mom got custody?

If child support is $600 per month per child, Daddy Duggar would have to come up with about ten thousand dollars per month in child support.

If they each got eight kids in the custody battle, each parent would have to pay five thousand dollars per month in child support.

Neither parent went to college and I seriously doubt that either of them would have the potential to earn enough to support a tenth of their brood.

Still, we should wish them only our best.

I shouldn't be judgmental toward parents. After all, I've never been a parent, so I should only be saying to myself . . . . . perhaps. . . hmmmm. . . . . .glass houses?

And, most of all, let's always keep in mind that the little ones of these families will probably be reading our blogs ten years from now.