controversial topic of the day...

So today I went to Minnesota Magazine Day downtown with a handful of my coworkers (all but one male, and we met her there). I, being generally quite and usually only piping up when I feel I have something to add to a conversation, tend to be ignored or forgotten occasionally and I am always amused to listen to conversations between groups of guys when this happens. On the drive to the hotel where the event was happening, the conversation turned to children. The two married men in the truck wives' are both expecting their second children. When one of the guys asked whether they would have any more, one came back with "They [meaning the women] seem to be in charge of that, don't they?" An interesting thought and a difficult issue. If one spouse wants more or fewer children than another, how do you resolve that without one person being disappointed. I don't know for sure, but I'd be willing to bet that in general, women want more children than men. I find it disgusting that some women think it's okay to get what they want (another child) anyway by going off of birth control or what have you without their husbands knowing and then getting pregnant. That's no way to build a healthy family. I suppose the flip side shows up too...there was that one episode of Grey's a couple weeks ago where the husband was angry the wife got her tubes tied after child 7. I find his actions equally disgusting. I guess you just have to pray for flexibility and compromise, going into your marriage having discussed some of these things ahead of time. Maybe someone who thought they only wanted two children will later decide that four is the perfect number. Or someone who wanted a large family to be perfectly content with just one child. It's tricky business bringing a child into this world, after all.

Disclaimer: I have no, nor have I ever had any, children, although I would like to have some, at some point.