I think I would be overwhelmed by the time I had 3 kids under 2!
I know huge families used to be a lot more common. It seems to me that it would be easier to do it while living a simpler life (although the advances of modern medicine probably help!)
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Dude, the Duggars are WEIRD. When he's campaigning around Arkansas, his older kids come and perform songs to help their daddy run for State rep.
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I knew a family that has a bunch of natural children like that, and they all had the same innitials: J.A.M.
Posts: 9293 | Registered: Aug 2000
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A gal about 65 miles north of here had her 20th child (TWENTY!!!) at the same birthing center I had Rainbow. The staff at the center talked about it when we were doing our tour. They were talking about how their standards for admission varied widely by who was coming in, how close they appear to be to birth and how many rooms they have open. They said that a first time mom may have to wait a bit, but the gal who was on her 20th was admitted immediately without question, as they figured she had a pretty good handle on how much longer she had. They said she gave birth 2 hours later.
I can't quite imagine that many kids. Our next door neighbors when I was a kid had 12. Their house was chaos. The kids loved coming over to our house because it was quiet. But then I had a good friend who was the oldest of 8, and their house was a well oiled machine.
kq, you want FOURTEEN???
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Some guy I knew from medschool had like 10 kids. Wife got pregnant again accidentally during his third year there. They had a big article on her family once and how she managed to feed and clothe them all while the dad was a student in medschool. One thing they did was have the wife and kids be mock patients for us students. It pays well, I guess. We'd have to do pretend exams and histories on adults and kids as part of training, so we ALL knew the wife and kiddoes by the end of the year.
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I have (will soon have, whatever...) 4. I'm ambivalent about having another. I have no plans to have 14 or anywhere close to that. I must say I already get a LOT of flak about having too many kids, even from complete strangers.
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I have three mature maple trees in my yard, plus 4 other unidentified large trees, all producing oxygen. Does that help? Posts: 251 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Wow! I cannot fathom having that many children! I'm glad they are so happy about their family, though. I have a great deal of respect for people who can have a happy home and care for lots of children.
Personally, I would like to have at least 2 kids. How many I end up having will depend on their temperments, the timing of births, etc., but I doubt I will have more than 4.
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quote:I know huge families used to be a lot more common. It seems to me that it would be easier to do it while living a simpler life (although the advances of modern medicine probably help!)
Modern medicine definitely would help. Especially if you want all your kids to live, which was not generally the case back in the olden days. There's a small graveyard near where I used to live, which has the graves of four "Infants" from the same family, plus a wife, who died on the same day as one of the infants.
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quote:I know huge families used to be a lot more common. It seems to me that it would be easier to do it while living a simpler life (although the advances of modern medicine probably help!)
Modern medicine definitely would help. Especially if you want all your kids to live, which was often not the case back in the olden days. There's a small graveyard near where I used to live, which has the graves of four "Infants" from the same family, plus a wife, who died on the same day as one of the infants.
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kq, try not to be too rigid in what you want, cuz you know, you might change your mind. *laugh* 8, no, 10, no, 12, no, 14 at the most. Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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Hmph, at this rate, it's not what I want, it's what I get!
If I hit 8 any time soon, I'm going to have to seriously limit my Hatrack time. Since it's in the water.
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there is only one problem that i can see with this family-- they ALL have names that start with J. that is just ridiculous.
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See, if I were going to have more, I'd want to continue with my theme of noun names. I have Rainbow and Christian. To which I might have to add Blender. Spatula. Snow. Bulldozer. Oh, the possibilities are endless!
It's a fortunate thing that there's no possibility of us having any more. Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
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I know a family where the father (actually my favorite bishop ever so far) is Jay P. Morgan (I have no idea what the "P" is for, but he goes by "Jay P."), the mother is Julene, and the kids are Jared, Jessica, Jaime, and Jennifer. They're all J. Morgan, although I don't think they gave any of the kids a "P" middle name.
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I knew a family with three girls named Summer, Autumn and Winter.
My best friend (who married my favorite cousin) is the oldest of 4 girls named Heidi, Heather, Hillary, and Haley.
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You know, I have 2 close friends who have 6 kids each, and I have to say that it isn't as hard as I would have thought-- if the kids aren't too close together, the olders can help with the youngers. I know another family who has 11 (or maybe 12, I'm not sure if the youngest of the brood is hers or a grandchild)and the older kids help out a lot.
But in all three of these families, they live in the country and grow/raise a lot of their own food.
I have 2, and I wouldn't have minded more.
Posts: 239 | Registered: May 2004
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I'm having 2. Option on 3 but that is it. (I tend to lean towards the replacing myself and Tony - and maybe one more )
I cannot even begin to fathom having 6 children, let alone 16.
Edit: Tony and I also plan to adopt at least one and maybe more older (less "desirable") child/children at some stage - when we are financially and emotionally ready to do so.
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I think it's wierd that all the kids got the dad's "J" initial and nobody got the mom's "M". If you're going to do something wierd like that you should make it more equitable. Posts: 1947 | Registered: Aug 2002
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My father was fourth or fifth (I can never remember) of 15, and 13 survived childhood. A second cousin once removed had 17 children, no multiples (or was it 18 or 19?). I have many other more removed relatives who had 16+ children. I have two ancestors who both had 25 children, but in the one case, split up among 2 wives (not at the same time - they kept dying in childbirth) and the other split up among 3 wives (again, not at the same time.) Imagine, on my father's side, I have (I haven't counted, I'm estimating) 60 or 70 cousins. (Several of the children in that family never married, which is why the number's so small.)
My mother was part of a small family - only 6 children. But then, given how my parents are related to each other, those ancestors I mentioned on my father's side are also on my mother's side.
Oh, and none of them are Mormon. It's all Mennonites.
Yeah, 20? No big deal.
Now, having married Fahim . . . His family is almost as large as mine. Yep, life is interestin'.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Wow. I'm always unsure about how I feel about families like that. First of all, I realize that it's none of my business since I'm not the one who has to take care of and support all of those children! But wow all the same. Mr. Opera and I watched a show on a family with like 16 kids (probably this same family) and to me it just looked horrible. I can't imagine having time to truly nurture that many children, and it seemed like the older ones were kinda used as constant parents-in-training for the younger ones. I guess it all depends on how you view it, though.
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I know what you mean about the burden on the older kids, Space Opera. You reminded me of a friend of mine, he's the youngest of 7. The oldest was a girl and she really felt like a second mom. She left home and married at 18, I believe, but never had any kids of her own, guess she's had enough. But then, in the family I know with 11 (or 12) kids, the older ones are popping out kids and happy about it.
I have to say, the dad of one of the families that I know with six kids once admitted it was real hard, to have so many kids looking to him for everything, he felt a lot of pressure. A point of view I hadn't thought of, till he mentioned it; I'd always just thought about it from a "mothering" point of view. I can't imagine how hard it must be to feed/clothe/house 16 kids. Just think of the laundry! My friend with 6 kids does 3 loads/day. Every day.
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My friend had 5 siblings. She was the oldest and constantly had to change diapers and take care of kids.
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I remember reading this books when I was little, about a large family where they named each kid the first name of the list in the baby name book. *thinks* or it might have also something to do with number.
first kid=first A name second kid=second B name
does anyone else remember something like that?
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I sweated profusely until the first ultrasound that showed me my wee Nathan . . . there were multiple sets of twins on BOTH sides of the family, one generation removed, which left me quaking in my boots . . .
I just welcomed my newest niece a few days ago - she's absolutely adorable, all 7 pounds, 6 ounces of her. My sis-n-law had her tubes tied. Three seems to be enough . . . Posts: 5609 | Registered: Jan 2003
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There is a musical called "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" where that occurs. The brothers' names are: Adam Benjamin Caleb Daniel Ephram Frank (Frankinsence (sp?)) Gideon
Alphabet and Bible names was the tradition for that story. One of the best lines?
"Momma couldn't find no "F" names in the Bible so she named him Frankinsence, 'cause he smelled so sweet."
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I remember that book Mack. There were ten kids, but I think there was a set of twins whose names started with F. The mother was pregnant again and at the end of the book the kids make a bargain with the parents that the parents are 'allowed' to have another kid if the kids are allowed two pets. So they get a dog and a cat and name them with z and y names.
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I didn't but I searched Amazon and it's kind of funny. The title is Ten Kids, No Pets , which I never would have guessed. Posts: 349 | Registered: May 2003
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I wanted to have 12 or 13 children. I landed up with one. You get what you get, I suppose. But we are awfully glad that we got our wonderful son, Ephraim. Posts: 10397 | Registered: Jun 2005
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Wow! I cannot fathom having that many children! I'm glad they are so happy about their family, though. I have a great deal of respect for people who can have a happy home and care for lots of children.![[Angst]](graemlins/angst.gif)
