Children Are Not Stamps

I have blogged about this before, but it has been brought to my attention again, so I felt the need to address it again.

Yes, I am a Mormon.

And, yes, I have only 2 children.

I can hear all the gasps of surprise:

 (What?  Only 2?  You  must not be a very good Mormon if you only have 2 kids.)

Or perhaps you feel bad for me, think that I may have had infertility issues.

No, the 2 kids were by choice.

(However, since we have not tried for a third, I have no idea if we could even have another.  Perhaps there are infertility issues and I just don't know about them.)

Do I not like children?

I actually love them, ESPECIALLY babies.  

Adore them. 

Can't get enough of them.

So why just 2?

This has been a decision that my husband and I made together.

(With a lot of prayer involved)

In the church that I belong to, it is very easy to feel inadequate with my small family.

Sitting in church on Sunday surrounded by families with 5 or 6 young kids (and more), reading blogs that are full of pictures of smiling, usually blonde, families with 6, 7, 8 kids.

It usually doesn't bother me, basically because I know that these families did not choose to have all those kids just to make me feel inadequate.  

I assume they (the husband and wife) talked and prayed about it like my husband and I did.

But when I hear people say that it is our job (as wives) to have as many kids as possible, I get kind of upset.

NO, that is NOT my job.

I am not a baby machine.

And my uterus is not a clown car.

My job is to raise the babies that come into my home in righteousness.

Any idiot can make a baby (and let's face it, a LOT of idiots do), but it takes a lot more to RAISE that baby.

The title of this post comes from this talk.  

"Motherhood is not a hobby, it is a calling. You do not collect children because you find them cuter than stamps."

I do find children cute (especially my own), and it has been hard to realize that cuteness is not a good enough reason (for me, at least) to have more.