From Abdulla Abdelsalam Belal…

What do you think is better? A large family?, a small one, or no child at all?

I grew up in a large family. I have 5 brothers and 3 sisters and they are all younger than me. One of my brothers was adopted from an Ethiopia. I’m happy I have so many siblings. Life is never boring in our house, that’s for sure. I have always somebody to talk to and share things with; it’s a nice feeling.  We help each other out with chores or homework, and if I want to play soccer with my friends and we are short of people, I can always count on my siblings to save the day. Of course we fight sometimes, but that’s normal between siblings. The fact is I cannot imagine what life would be like as an only child.

In my country, it’s normal to have a large family because people see children as a gift from God and a blessing. Besides money, what else can make people’s live happy – it’s family of course! But here in the Middle East, just like everywhere else, things change and nothing stays the same. Large families were more common in the old days. The younger generation has fewer children. I think it’s has a lot to do with the high cost of living nowadays. Everything is getting more expensive, so to feed a large family requires more money. Not everybody is rich in our country and many families struggle to make ends meet.

I come from an average middle class family – not rich, not poor. Thank God we have everything we need and everybody is healthy and happy. My parents never would’ve considered having so many children, if they were not able to take care of all of us. The good thing is my brother and sisters learn from each, help each other out and we’re never alone. I will consider having a large family, because I just love the atmosphere in the house. We all have different characters, so everybody reacts differently to certain things… it’s sometimes fun to watch. But I’m just one person from one culture and everybody should decide for themselves whether or not they want to have a big family.

Many people think that if someone decides to have a large family, the parents must be poorly educated or needy. That might be true in some cases but not in our family. My mother always dreamed of having many children, because she grew with only one brother eight years older than her. She always longed for a sister her age to share things or do things with, but she knew that it would never happen. People sometimes can be very prejudice about large families. It’s almost like some people look down on those who have too many kids.

Everybody should live his life the way he or she thinks will be fulfilling for them. If someone thinks he’s better of having no children at all, or he or she want only one or two children, that’s their decision.  I don’t judge people based on the size of their family. I know most people in Europe and America try to keep the size of their family small.

I believe that even one child can also bring happiness, but I would love to have more than that. What else is there in life? It would be fantastic if I was the richest man on the planet, but if I had nobody to share it with, no one to carry on my name, I would be so alone in the end.

I think my mom does a great job every day, raising so many children. She’s always there for all of us. I am lucky and feel blessed to have such loving and caring family. I know there are many children out there who also grew up in large families and who don’t feel the same way I do. I think that maybe they were not so lucky and had a rough time growing up.

Life is too short – everybody needs to feel he or she is being loved or they belong somewhere. It doesn’t matter – a small, medium, large family or having no child at all – people just should go on living their lives and discover what’s right for them.

In the end, life would be pretty boring of we all thought and lived the same way.