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Cay Gibson
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Garrett and I had a rare chance to go shopping together without a pack of girls (ie: little sisters) coming along.
I took him to lunch and, while waiting for our McDonald's yummies, I heard a red-haired, college-aged girl behind the counter calmly say to her co-workers, "I don't know why everyone acts so shocked. I come from a family of 8 children..." and, with a slight shrug of her shoulders, very casually added, "It's a family thing." 
She was so calm and well-composed when she said it. What a model for our children!
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Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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Martha
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My dh and I were at a buffet pizza resturant (Cici's) last week and this really burly and tall kid about 17 or 18 walked up to my dh and said the usual "Are all those kids yours?" Dh said yes and was prepared for the usual shock and awe, but was pleasantly surprised to hear, "That's so cool. I'm the oldest of 8." and he said it the company of a bunch of guy buddies at that. 
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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Marybeth
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My niece(age 10) asked my parents the other day why big families in her town have small homes and people with one or two children are building such huge homes?
Interesting to see her trying to understand other people's mindset.
She really wants to have 5 kids when she gets married. I am delighted she is naming her first girl after me!!  
I wonder if her husband will object. 
Marybeth
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Bookswithtea
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Marybeth wrote:
| My niece(age 10) asked my parents the other day why big families in her town have small homes and people with one or two children are building such huge homes? |
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I've wondered the same thing myself!
I had a college aged kid ask me about our family size at Trader Joe's once. When I was done with my usual response, he said sooo nonchalantly, "Oh, you aren't that big a family...I have 6 brothers and sisters."
Made me want to catch up!
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Blessings,
~Books
mothering ds'93 dd'97 dd'99 dd'02 ds'05 ds'07 and  due 9/10
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StephanieA
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My oldest son attends a state university and his first speech assignment was to tell about someone that you admire. A fellow student (a girl) gave a speech about her grandparents. She admired them because they raised 11 kids. Then he went to chemistry lab and his lab partner was from a family of 7 kids. His calculus teacher has 6 kids. He's beginning to think his family isn't so "not mainstream" :)
Blessings,
Stephanie
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Cathmomof8
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Seems one of the first things people ask me, with our 8 kids, is "How many BEDROOMS do you have?" I try to explain our rather unusual bedroom situation but basically get to the point that it seems even if our children all had their own rooms, it wouldn't matter because there are usually 4 kids sleeping in the room next to ours doubled up in twin beds, just because they don't WANT to sleep alone. Now, the teenagers are another story....
Theresia
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Mary G
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We just moved into our new home -- a 4bed/2bath beauty. Our next door neighbor, a single woman with AN IDENTICAL HOME, asked us "where are you going to fit everybody?"
I answered "the boys in one bedrm, the girls in another, and Rick and I in one; we actually have more rooms than we need."
She thought I was insane
I saw an article the other day in the Wall St. Journal that explained one of the reasons the liberals are losing out in the polls is because they're NOT having babies. Seems we're all raising fairly conservative BIG families and the liberals are dying out....pretty ironic, huh?
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MaryG
3 boys (22, 12, 8)2 girls (20, 11)
my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!
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teachingmom
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The bedroom question drives me crazy. I saw a reference in the Washington Post the other day that referred to indicators of poverty in the Washington area. One of them was that a home had more than one person per bedroom. When this baby is born, we'll be an 8 person family in a 4 bedroom home. Isn't it sad that many people think sharing bedrooms makes you poor?!
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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Lisbet
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Oh Irene!! That cracks me up!! We have 5 people in one BED! Granted, we do have 4 bedrooms (well, one room is actually a sunroom but the 2 oldest boys sleep in there just fine!) and 8 beds, but 2 of the beds sit empty all night long!
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12
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Cathmomof8
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When we were first starting out and expecting our third, I had someone tell me, in all seriousness, "I'd like to have another (they had 2) but then they couldn't have their own bedrooms. They HAVE to have their OWN bedroom" YIKES!
Theresia
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Lisbet
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I can beat that one Theresia, a co-worker of my husbands had 2 kids, they built a gigundus house in the 'burbs complete with 4 full and one half baths so they finally could have that 3rd child ~ they each have their own BATHROOM!! I kid you not!!
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Lisa, wife to Tony,
Mama to:
Nick, 17
Abby, 15
Gabe, 13
Isaac, 11
Mary, 10
Sam, 9
Henry, 7
Molly, 6
Mark, 5
Greta, 3
Cecilia born 10.29.10
Josephine born 6.11.12
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mrsgranola
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We actually had a neat exhange the other night at Golden Corral (kids night-- $.099!). We were coming out and getting in the new 12-passenger van. Another family were getting out of their 12-passenger with 3 kids and the dad said, "5 kids... that's a good start! We have 9!" 
Made our day!
JoAnna
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Mom to Jacob, Grace, Mary, Lucas, Emma, Carrie and Gianna
Parente Adventures
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MEBarrett
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teachingmom wrote:
| When this baby is born, we'll be an 8 person family in a 4 bedroom home. |
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With the arrival of the twins we are a nine person family in a four bedroom, two bath home. We have three girls in one room, two boys in another, the twins in the small room (they aren't there yet but they will be) and Dave and I in another. I wouldn't mind another bedroom just because my parents come to visit a lot and it would be nice to offer them a real room instead of a pull out in the basement.
Judging by the amount of goofing and giggling that goes on in those "crowded" bedrooms every night I don't think anyone is feeling deprived.
When I was in the hospital with the twins I was standing at the window watching them during visiting hours. A very young looking student nurse asked me which was my baby and I pointed out the twins. She asked if they were my first and when I told her they were #6 & 7 she was shocked. "You must be a millionaire," she said.
She was competely serious.
I aughed out loud. "How could we be millionaires?" I said, "we have to feed all of these kids."
"Well you must be rich, what does your husband do?"
Then I got annoyed. I was waiting for her to ask me for a W2 form. I told her that it was sad that her focus was on my financial situation rather than my beautiful family. I also pointed out that being nosey and rude woud not serve her well in her chosen profession. Offending patients was probably not in her best interest.
She flounced off.
Poor thing, I shouldn't have lost my temper but she was so abrasive and I was hormonal.
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Mary Ellen
Mom to seven beautiful kids
Tales from the Bonny Blue House
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Meredith
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Don't feel bad MaryEllen, she was being too nosy, IMHO I get the "Are they ALL yours" all the time and I only have 4 Funny thing is we live in a fairly heavy LDS area where large families are pretty common, it's all in who you happen upon I guess 
Blessings to everyone with large or small families, you're doing God's will and that's all that matters!!
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Meredith
Mom of 4 Sweeties
Sweetness and Light
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Martha
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we'll if were competing for suffering ..
we're 10 people in a 4-ish bedroom house (we divided the 1-car garage in half to make a 4th room) and only 2 toilets.
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Martha
mama to 7 boys & 4 girls
Yes, they're all ours!
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StephanieA
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[QUOTE=Martha] we'll if were competing for suffering ..
we're 10 people in a 4-ish bedroom house
Dear Martha,
I can relate (we'll have ten in a few months) and seriously with 3 teens who are clammering for some personal space, we are experiencing some squeezing problems. We have 3 bedrooms with a makeshift downstairs. Bathrooms weren't important until the last 2-3 years when the teens boys began to take daily showers seriously Beds are not a problem, but quiet study in a semi-private bedroom is at a premium. The 2 kids that attend college complain about the amount of noise upstairs at odd hours of the day - like the afternoon and early evening - Duh!
Adding on would be a financial strain. My uncle/aunt did it with one bathroom and 5 kids. Their kids were pretty clean overall I suppose we'll do fine also with the luxury of 2 bathrooms! But I can hardly project 8-9 years from now when I will have 4 teens girls fighting for a mirror
Blessings,
Stephanie
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amiefriedl
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Okay, here is the "I walked to school in the snow, uphill, both ways" comment. Only it isn't my experience it was my dad's family's experience and I'm sure others have interesting (and far more interesting) anecdotes than this....
My dad's family grew up in government housing after they left a failing dairy farm (they didn't own it, just worked there), they were a family of 9 children and parents in a two bedroom apartment and the 3 oldest siblings rolled out bedrolls on the kitchen floor each night for sleeping while everyone else squeezed into the bedrooms. How's that for simplicity?
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In Christ the King through Mary our Mother,
Amie
Blessed with an awesome hubby and Mom of ds10, dd7, dd3 and dd 10months.
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StephanieA
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siblings rolled out bedrolls on the kitchen floor each night for sleeping while everyone else squeezed into the bedrooms. How's that for simplicity? [/QUOTE
Well, I can't quite top that, but when I was growing up, my family bought a house in the boondocks. They were in the process of builing a home on the property. While our home was being constructed, we (8 of us) lived in a one bedroom trailer for about 8 months. We took turns holding up the 3 chaired table for supper. It was crazy!
We had no living room, and slept 2-3 in a twin-sized bed.....little kids across the bottom
These were great memories. I even managed to sneak my new puppy into my bed a couple of nights because....well, he was lonely outside all by himself.
Blessings,
Stephanie
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Dawnie
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amiefriedl wrote:
| My dad's family grew up in government housing after they left a failing dairy farm (they didn't own it, just worked there), they were a family of 9 children and parents in a two bedroom apartment and the 3 oldest siblings rolled out bedrolls on the kitchen floor each night for sleeping while everyone else squeezed into the bedrooms. How's that for simplicity? |
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I can actually top that one! My husband's grandfather was one of 16 children. They lived in a tiny 2-bedroom farmhouse in Western Kansas. The parents slept in one room, the girls in another, and the boys slept on mattresses spread out on the attic floor!
On the subject of what is considered "poor," it seems that in America, you are considered "poor" if you don't have a lot of discretionary income. For example, I just discovered that we qualify for WIC and we MAY qualify for food stamps. This was a shock for me, as we have NEVER been hungry or unable to buy food for our family. There are many months where I have just enough money to pay the bills and buy groceries--and nothing else. So, government assistance for us would simply provide us with some discretionary income, not money that we NEED for food.
Dawn
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4Real Forums : Mothering and Family Life
Topic: It's a Family Thing
