Why do so many people dislike large families?

I've had an interesting today, to say the least! This morning, I was trying to email a fellow home schooling mom, when I hear shouts of "Mommy, she swallowed the chap stick lid! She swallowed the chap stick lid!" Immediately, I bolt up the stairs and expect to see my baby girl laying on the floor choking to death. Instead, I see her sitting up smiling at me with the tube of chap stick in one hand. The missing cap was nowhere to be found. I started interrogating the two older girls who saw her swallow the lid. They still emphatically said that the baby had swallowed the cap.

After five kids, you'd think one of them would have done this sort of thing before, but they hadn't. So I sort of panicked and called my husband at work. He said I should call the doctor. Well, dah! Why didn't I think of that? So I called, answered all their questions, and went in for an appointment at 1pm.

When I get to the doctor's new office, they all stare at my five kids and I with a rather disgusted look. You'd think that I had just brought a pack of muddy dogs into their newly carpeted room! The receptionist never said a single hi, hello, good day, can I help you...just stared for awhile and coldly handed me the paperwork to fill out. After awhile, she asked which doctor I'd be seeing and which one had the problem. I wasn't too offended at this point, just felt unwelcome, until I looked around the room and everyone was noticeably counting kids and shaking their heads back and forth in disapproval.

Why do so many people dislike large families? The kids were even being really good at this point! The baby was asleep and the other four were nicely sharing the toys they had brought with them!

Soon after I filled out the paper work, my dear husband shows up to help watch the kids while I see the doctor. Normally, I wouldn't have asked him to come help, but I had no idea if they were going to need to do anything extensive to the baby, like a scope. Plus I just needed someone to be there for me! I was still pretty worried. I don't think he even noticed the on lookers, but I did. As soon as they heard the kids say, "Daddy!" They all looked at him almost in anger, as if to say, "How could you do this to that poor woman!" Again, why do so many people dislike large families?

Long story short: the baby should be fine as long as the lid passes in the next 3 days.

As if the adventure at the doctor's weren't enough, I figured that since our school day had been cut short, and I was in town anyway, I might at well go to the grocery store. I should be use to it by now, I know, but the looks I got from everyone today, as I loaded the kids up into the two-seater blue cart, really get to me. Why can't I get use to the fact that I will always stick out like a sore thumb wherever I go? We live a counter-cultural life style. People see that, and they stare. I can live with that. What I have a hard time with is the nasty comments, the disgust, and sometimes anger that people have toward us. How do I get past that?