A friend of mine recently announced her pregnancy to a gathering of mutual friends. She was grateful, but slightly overwhelmed, especially since this baby will be joining a growing troop of small children.
Her announcement is just in time for National Siblings Day on April 10, one of those strange calendar remembrances that actually seems to get noticed judging from the smiling photos of brothers and sisters which pop up all over social media on the day.
Unfortunately, siblings are becoming more of a rarity, especially families like my friend’s which sport more than the socially acceptable one or two kids. That’s tragic, because while there can be some negative aspects of having multiple siblings, there are also many benefits that we overlook.
Back in 2023, Gallup found that the ideal number of children families wanted to have was around two to three, a number that was actually on the rise compared to recent history.
That number is ironic, because as author Bernard Bell noted in “Crisis in Education,” two to three children “is the smallest number that is desirable if the children are to help educate each other.”
His observation gave me pause. So often the automatic response in America is to feel sorry for those families who have more than two children, thinking that those same kids won’t have the educational opportunities for advancement that children in smaller families have. But Bell is saying the opposite – that children with more siblings are at an educational advantage. So what might those advantages be?
For starters, families with many children live in the one-room school scenario 24/7. By this I mean that they have constant interaction between multiple ages, giving the younger siblings many occasions to glean from what the older ones are learning. Meanwhile, older siblings have more opportunities to teach the younger key life lessons – perhaps even help them with schoolwork, a fact which broadens their own learning and understanding.
Families with multiple children may also foster a broader range of personalities. Research shows that firstborn children are generally the smartest in the birth order lineup – presumably because they received more one-on-one time with mom and dad. But other research suggests that the farther down the birth order line one goes, the more innovative and creative the children get, meaning that without large families, we may be missing out on some successful entrepreneurs and those who question the status quo and refuse to be lemmings – something particularly helpful as the struggle continues between the totalitarian elites and the good folks in middle America.
But the educational advantages of large families extend beyond school-related activities and into the realm of interpersonal relationships. Not surprisingly, children with lots of siblings are a step ahead in this realm. One study found that the more siblings an individual has, the more their odds of divorce decline, while other studies “show that children from larger families are more likely to be altruistic.”
Now can we honestly say that there are no negative aspects to having large families? No, that would be unreasonable.
The problem is, it’s also unreasonable to dismiss large families outright – which is what many today do automatically, giving individuals like my aforementioned friend a lot of looks, rolled eyes, and unwanted comments at the grocery store, on the playground, or in other aspects of daily life thanks to her ever-expanding number of children.
That’s unfortunate, because rather than being idiotic for having a large family – as many would imply – it seems my friend may actually be the smart one for thinking outside the box and giving her children numbers of siblings, thus bringing them many overlooked advantages.
This matters because America is facing a birth dearth, one that could negatively affect our nation not only on an economic and a security basis, but also an ideological basis for years to come.
Children give people a different perspective on life. Yes, they’re messy, loud and needy … but they also help us as adults to think more long-term, grow less selfish, and even ponder God and His ways. And those aspects are something we could all use more of in our personal lives.
So on this National Siblings Day, keep an eye out for a mama with a bunch of children in tow. Then give her a thank you for what she’s contributing to society by raising them. That big family may just be one of our most powerful weapons in the quest for cultural renewal.
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The republication of this article is made possible by The Fred & Rheta Skelton Center for Cultural Renewal.
Image Credit: Flickr-Clemens v. Vogelsang, CC BY 2.0
