WANDA SHERRATT writes from Ottawa:

 I was so sorry to hear about that Brazilian mother of six, and how she isn’t appreciated even in a Catholic country like Brazil.  To compensate, here’s an amusing story from when my family lived in India in the 90s.  My husband is a diplomat, so we mostly associated with other diplomatic families.  One diplomatic wife told me of taking a trip with her children into Old Delhi one day.  She had three sons, and each of her sons brought along a friend.  And it just happened that they all had rather similar features and hair color, and they also all descended in height rather evenly. So it really looked as if all six boys were hers.

Now, Old Delhi was a place I seldom went because it’s very old, with winding lanes and VERY crowded, all the time.  Especially with the heat, I found it very claustrophobic.  However, she said that when her driver stopped their minivan on the crowded street and she descended with all six of her “sons”, the crowd simply parted before them, and there was a murmur of admiration.  She had six sons!  This is a woman!  One old lady even came up to her and touched her forehead as a sign of respect.  The people around would have thought it lucky just to witness such a sight.

So there are still places in the world where having many children is not regarded as something shameful.  However, we should not overlook the fact that having six SONS was what was regarded as particularly praiseworthy in India.  When I told one of my servants that my mother had six sisters and one brother, he shook his head and said, “Madam, in India if a man had seven daughters, he would get a new wife!”

— Comments —

Anita Kern writes from Toronto:

The man who said he would “get a new wife” if his wife had too many daughters – and many others like him – need some education! It’s the man’s seed that determines the sex of the child…. The wife should rather get a new husband :-)

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