A Child Isn’t Just For Christmas But A Life Long Commitment.

I thought it would be a different spin on the puppy scenario but its a very similar story when looking at the lack of birth control and thought that goes into the sheer number of kids families have in the Philippines.

You see I have no issue with someone having 8 kids or even 15 what I do have an issue with is the inability they have to care for them from birth to adulthood.

Children are a lifelong commitment and too often you will hear the argument for and against the health bill. The pro life crowd backed by the church I have seen showing babies in jars. While the pro health bill crowd will talk about the benefits that could be brought to the already struggling Philippines population.

But at no point does anyone ever seem to talk about the children themselves, the fact is there needs to be less of them and a lot less. I am not talking about genocide or something sinister but the simple fact of showing people that having one sack of rice for 3 people goes a lot further than a sack of rice for 12.

How do you convert this into common sense? Because its pretty obvious when you go to the supermarket and people either can’t count or don’t bother to count what they are buying that a lot of people don’t seem to have an idea of basic living costs. They stack up the trolley and stare at the cash register to see how much they have spent eventually leaving half of the items they filled their trolley with. Why is this when it seems obvious that they needed all the stuff in the trolley in the first place?

Is it the same mentality? An enjoyable night in the bedroom is fantastic but at no point considering the consequences until child number 4?

I may sound a little irritated by this but its primarily caused by the fact educated people seem to understand this logic pretty well and I would hazard a bet that the “educated” Filipino’s have smaller families. Problem is over 70% of the country is living in poverty. A lot of it self inflicted due to poor education and a simple grasp of consequence.

We can blame the church for many things and interfering in the health bill being one of them. But at the same point how many children happen out of wedlock? How many are random meetings? How all this cannot be blamed solely at the footsteps of the church but at the people involved and more importantly the lack of responsibility taken.

Tags: cebu expat, child, children, Christmas, Health Bill, life long commitment, matt wilkie, philippines