Not picking on big families but...

[Quin]

The largest number I've had living with me full time is 5 kids (just me, my exHusband was outta there)

The largest number I've had on a regular basis is 8 (I was nannying)

The largest number I've had eating 2+ meals in my home each day (for essentially a few years) was 15-20 (when all of my 5 had their friends over).

So that's a thing to keep in mind when adds things up.

Numbers GROW.

Because kids have friends!

And your friends have kids and need help.

So my 1 bio-kid turned into 5 kids overnight, turned into 15-20 kids.

I swear. I only meant to homeschool 1.

It became more of a 1 room schoolhouse.

Oy.

But let's use 5 as the general number.

Even bough I usually had 3x that in my house/ that I was responsible for.

What was EASY was the long term stuff.

The kids I had sleeping with me, I could plan for.

The kids who got dropped off? Well, we'll wing it!

Same problems with OPKs (other people's kids) as my own, as far as budget & cars/transportation goes.

More problems with discipline (your own kids are always easier than OPKs!)

But I'm not including college, because when I was looking at raising 5 kids to adulthood, I was going to be helping them fill out scholarship forms beginning in 6th add, every year until they were all educated.

The HARDEST?

3 kids.

3 kids was hardest.

Cost the same as 5-15... But they drove each other nuts, which meant they drove me nuts.

Also, that's JUST enough kids to need a factory system for things like food, cooking, laundry...

But not so many as to make it seem easy & or worthwhile, so things piled up.

Oh. I had a 1,000 square foot house with 2 bedrooms.

Big numbers = boys room & girls room & bunk beds

If things had stayed Big Numbers, I'd hope to have moved to a bigger place.

5 kids, though, I had all in one room. 2 bunks & a trundle. Voila!

But things toned down from 8, to 5, to 3, to 1.

I only save about $200 a month by having 1 instead of 8-20.

Go figure.

Q

[Bini]

Great thoughts from everyone.

 

 

When I had logged in awhile ago, I ran across a blog here on LDS.net, and it was written from a parent of a family of nine (I think it was). My jaw just dropped, I couldn't even imagine! I agree, it can be figured out, but I don't believe a family of ten is just as manageable as a family of four - in general - certainly there are exceptions. My husband comes from a fairly large blended family, and his mother came from a family of fourteen! When family and raising kids comes up, she has told me plenty of times that it was difficult back in the day to support and provide for such a large family, and things would have been less complicated with four. That was her experience. But that said, I guess it doesn't matter what era you're in, there will always be challenges.