More children needed

It’s a growing concern that world leaders, economists and even Pope Francis have warned about: people aren’t having enough children.
Across the globe, birth rates are plummeting below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman, the minimum needed to maintain a stable population.
Countries such as Japan, Italy and even the U.S. are now facing shrinking workforces, aging populations and economic uncertainty as a result.
Pope Francis, too, has urged families to embrace more children, praising the value of big families, which teach children selflessness and sharing — benefits that extend far beyond the home.
And I couldn’t agree more.
I was raised as an only boy in a family of six kids, which was at once a blessing and a curse.
When I was 12, the neighborhood bully was constantly picking on me, but I had no brothers to teach me to fight. My sisters taught me. I looked the bully dead in the eye and said, “You are soooooooo immature!”
Despite having no brothers, my father made me wear hand-me-downs. It wasn’t too bad most of the year, but Easter Sunday was unpleasant. Do you know how hard it is to outrun the neighborhood bully with your pantyhose bunching up and your bonnet flopping in the wind?
Though my sisters loved and doted on me many times, other times they complained to my parents that I was stinky and gross, which meant I was forever banished to the third seat in the back of the station wagon.
One of my fondest memories was going grocery shopping with my father every Thursday night. We hit the Del Farm grocery store, the beer distributor and the butcher and we arrived home just as “The Waltons” theme song was playing on television.
Like a Red Cross operation, everyone in the house unloaded and packed away our weekly supplies, then we joined for some potato chips and orange and cherry soda pop as we watched John Boy and his many siblings show us what life was like during the Great Depression.

Pope Francis has said that “having brothers and sisters is good for you.” He said, “the sons and daughters of a large family are more capable of fraternal communion from early childhood.”
He has also said that “each family is the cell of society, but the large family is a richer, more vibrant cell.”
I found this to be true.
My parents’ house was a wonderful, raucous place, filled with laughter, chaos and lots of love and joy. You had no choice but to interact.
I can’t help but wonder how many of today’s kids — without siblings and isolated with their smartphones alone in their rooms — are missing out on the childhood I was blessed to have.
According to a 2023 report from the U.S. surgeon general, young people are experiencing record-high levels of loneliness and anxiety.
Being part of a big family would solve that problem. You simply can’t isolate yourself with so much commotion going on all around you.
And if you attempted to hide from the rest of the family, one of your siblings would demand you come out of your room or risk the greatest punishment that can happen in a big family.
Someone would threaten to brush their teeth with your toothbrush!

Copyright 2025 Tom Purcell, distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons newspaper syndicate.