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Bridget
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came from big famiies? How about your spouses?
I'm the oldest of 10, so my soon-to-be 7 doesn't seem that big yet. (But as soon as your out numbered, it's a handfull!) My dh came from 4 but they are so spread out it was more like 2.
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Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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dhbrug
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I am the oldest of 5 children (although my mother is one of 14). Lana is the youngest of 3, but spent the last few years at home on her own with her parents.
Lana's first experience of large families was when she visited our home one Easter just after we had started together. She saw the table tennis (ping pong) table being set up in the back room and thought it was a bit odd. There wasn't really room to play. But when she saw the tablecloths and cutlery being placed, she realised we were having a dinner for about 16 people at *someone's home*! Each of the children had a boyfriend or girlfriend, my grandparents were there and an aunt and uncle too.
Lana found the safest place to sit was in a corner. Everywhere else she had to move because someone was coming past!
Of course now it is all second nature. I think it's pretty fortunate that children normally only come in one or two at a time, so by the time you have four or more children, you are used to the chaos and consider it normal.
Cheers
David
http://bruggietales.blogspot.com
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1Bookworm
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As I mentioned before, I am the oldest of two. Dh is the youngest of two. Dh's parents came from families with 4 and 5 children (Irish Catholic). My parent's families were also small.
A dear friend of mine when I was growing up was one of 8 (devout German Catholic). Spending the night at her house was my first experience with a large family, and the noise and teasing brothers scared the dickens out of me! LOL I still remember watching the girls of this family make a batch of chocolate chip cookies for the family...I had never seen such a big batch in all my life!
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Mary G
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I'm the 6th of seven -- and my mom was the 4th of 7 kids, dad was the 2nd of 5. We have 5 of our own (+ 3 of Rick's), so we're pretty darn close even if you don't count the "steps".
Poor dh though is from a very quiet (I mean QUIET) family of 3 kids only (his parents both only had 3 other siblings) -- when Rick first came with me to one of my brother's house for Easter dinner (his wife and he have two girls), another brother came, my sister and my mom -- poor Rick couldn't get a word in as he kept waiting for one conversation to finish -- in our house it was, if you took a breath, it was someone else's turn to talk  .
Rick has since adjusted fairly well, but it's still a bit hard on him. Each year we go to another brother's house with his wife and 10 kids and the noise level NEVER goes down!
Blessings all.
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MaryG
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Elizabeth
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I'm one of two. We're three years apart, both girls. So this houseful dominated by boys is a bit of a shock. My husband is one of four but his older brothers are 16 and 17 years older (and were out of the house and out of state before he could remember) and his sister is his twin.
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Elizabeth Foss is no longer a member of this forum. Discussions now reflect the current management & are not necessarily expressions of her book, *Real Learning*, her current work, or her philosophy. (posted by E. Foss, Jan 2011)
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Courtney
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I don't have a big family with only 2 dc, but I am the youngest of six girls. I loved being in a big family and I never minded sharing a room. My dh is the youngest and only boy with 3 older sisters. I love the activity of a houseful, dh on the other hand, gets overwhelmed by noise and lots of activity.
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Courtney in Texas
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Mom to Candace 10/97 ,Christopher 4/00 and Connor 11/11
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Wendi DeGrandpr
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I am also one of two. My brother is almost three years older. My mother was an only child and my father has one sister. I grew up with two cousins and that was that. When I met my husband in high school (he is one of four) and he invited me to a family gathering with all of his cousins I was totally in awe. There were so many people I couldn't believe it - and now I look back and think 11 kids total was really not that big. I have to say it was one of the things I loved - even though it was extended family it was so much fun. I always wished for a big family when I was growing up.
God Bless,
Wendi
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MacBeth
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Don is one of two, and I am one of three (both our moms are RH negative).
My dad was one of nine, and as he was the firstborn, his younger siblings were like brothers and sisters to us. Many of my first cousins are younger than Libby, so I have always felt like we belong to a very big family!
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MacBeth in NY
Don's wife since '88; "Mom" to the Fab 4
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teachingmom
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I am one of 6 and dh is one of 10. Now, dh's mom was an only child. She always said she would never become Catholic because of all those children they have . . . just goes to show that we sometimes really have to eat our words! 
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momwise
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MacBeth wrote:
| My dad was one of nine, and as he was the firstborn, his younger siblings were like brothers and sisters to us. Many of my first cousins are younger than Libby |
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We have this same thing going on; our oldest son has a 3 year old and our two youngest are 5 yrs. and 8 mos. Our granddaughter holds her "auntie" whenever she comes over. The 5 & 3 yr. old bicker enough to be siblings  .
I'm the oldest of 4 and my dh is the baby of 2. My mom was the oldest of 4 also and my dad was the 5th of 10. My mom was always uncomfortable with the high noise level and argumentative gatherings. You had to be really assertive to get heard. I ended up with a bit of a loud and dramatic flair for discussions...a real disaster when I first began to use email
God bless,
Gwen in Denver
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Liz D
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I am the oldest of six(3 girls and 3 boys). I have 3 girls and three boys. My mom's mom had three girls and three boys. I like to teasingly ask my dds which one of them is going to carry on the tradition. My husband is the oldest of five. I always secretly wanted to have about 12 kids but too chicken to work hard at it. Not too PC in the early 80's to mid-90's when I was having babies,either. DH only wanted 2 kids but was always thrilled when another was on the way- "a miracle from God" he would say.
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alicegunther
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I guess I am the rarest of creatures on this list--an only child! My husband is one of eleven though, so he makes up for the striking lack of aunts and uncles on my side of the family.
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
  
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Kelly
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I am #6 of 8 loud, disorderly (but very happy) children. Growing up, a little Protestant kid in the South, we were only outnumbered by two other families that I remember. Both were Catholic families, one with 11 children and one with 9. It always aggravated me. I used to say to my mother, "Can't we have a BIG family?" It annoyed her to no end!
My dh has one brother and comes from a quiet, orderly(and not very happy) home. When we were about to be engaged and were discussing children, he told me he was ---and I quote--- "Open to having a child" I almost had a seizure. I said I hoped to have at LEAST 11 children, and if he wasn't with the program, he might as well go scratch on someone else's screen door. And here he was, the Catholic, and I, the Protestant! I'm glad to report that he had a sudden, and complete, change of heart Even tho we didn't make it to 11 (I was nearly 30 when we married), I still keep my fingers crossed for a couple more, but am equally thrilled to have gotten over half way there. Also, my dh, who works in Africa, always gets LOTS of mileage with the Africans, who delight in a large family!
Kelly in FL
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alicegunther
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Kelly wrote:
| I am #6 of 8 loud, disorderly (but very happy) children. Growing up, a little Protestant kid in the South, we were only outnumbered by two other families that I remember. Both were Catholic families, one with 11 children and one with 9. It always aggravated me. I used to say to my mother, "Can't we have a BIG family?" It annoyed her to no end! |
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That's extremely funny, Kelly. It sounds like something one of my kids would say.
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Love, Alice
mother of seven!
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Bridget
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My poor dh only wanted 2 children when we were engaged. He got over that and hopes we have more!
My children all say they hope for big families. Monica (8) recently wrote a little story about the adventures of a family with 21 children. She wants her own family to be that size.
Sigh, I will probably never get into the double digits as I had hoped. But we sure have a good time with our little crowd. I'm just over whelmed with gratitude for them.
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God Bless,
Bridget, happily married to Kevin, mom to 8 on earth and a small army in heaven
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momtomany
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I'm the oldest of two and come from a very quiet, organized, scheduled household. My dh is the baby of 3 boys.
I've got 8 at home right now, and as my older kids say, there's always some kind of live entertainment going on here. I love it and wouldn't have it any other way!
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Mary Ann in PA
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dhbrug
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When we were first married, we had decided that two was obviously enough - overpopulatioon dontchaknow? In the light of society's wisdom, this made sense. We didn't know anybody with more than a couple of children. Of course God had other plans and we are very happy with His choice.
However, it does highlight the need for families to be seen out and about, smiling and happy, showing that a large family is a Good Thing. And typically homeschooling large families make a great example as they are more often seen as a group rather than in smaller portions.
I don't know if seeing larger families would have made a difference to us way back when, but at least it would have shown us an alternative. In many parts of society larger families are almost unheard of and unseen.
Regards
David
dw Lana, dad to Ariel, Eric, James, Peter, Clare and Rose
http://bruggietales.blogspot.com
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Willa
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I am the oldest of three children and the only daughter. My husband is the fourth of five children. My first experience with DH's family (before we were married) was similar to the way David (I think it was him) described his wife's first meeting with his family. They filled a table with several in-laws and a couple of grandchildren already and were so noisy! They are Irish and Catholic while my family was Scottish/Dutch Protestant and very quiet and reserved!
DH told me very firmly that contraception was out of the question... how shocking to my modern sensibilities! I had wanted a large family as a child (after reading LM Montgomery's books I wanted at least six) but had adjusted my dream to "reality" as I became older and planned maybe 2 or 3 at most.
How I thank God that DH was so adamant on this point. It opened our hearts to so many graces. We KNEW we couldn't do it ourselves. We had 3 children in 3.5 years, leading me to believe fearfully that I'd end up with at least 15, and then our spacing naturally slowed down to one every 3 years. My fourth child was born ill on the 20th anniversary of Roe v Wade and that completely converted my heart towards the preciousness of life and towards homeschooling. I no longer was anxious about that mythical 15 children, I WANTED all of them.
We ended up with 7--- 10 if you count our precious ones in God's arms.
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Willa
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Mary G
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momwise wrote:
MacBeth wrote:
| My dad was one of nine, and as he was the firstborn, his younger siblings were like brothers and sisters to us. Many of my first cousins are younger than Libby |
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We have this same thing going on; our oldest son has a 3 year old and our two youngest are 5 yrs. and 8 mos. Our granddaughter holds her "auntie" whenever she comes over. The 5 & 3 yr. old bicker enough to be siblings .
I'm the oldest of 4 and my dh is the baby of 2. My mom was the oldest of 4 also and my dad was the 5th of 10. My mom was always uncomfortable with the high noise level and argumentative gatherings. You had to be really assertive to get heard. I ended up with a bit of a loud and dramatic flair for discussions...a real disaster when I first began to use email
God bless,
Gwen in Denver |
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My dh started young the first time around and has a daughter that's only 9 years younger than me -- and she has 4 boys, so Rick and my little ones are interspersed between Jill's little one! We just call all the big ones aunts, uncles, etc and all the kids are cousins -- makes it so much easier than uncles being younger than nephews, etc.
But we all have a great time with it!
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MaryG
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Molly Smith
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My dh is the oldest of 3 and I am the youngest of 3. His little brother and I share a birthday. It's kinda cool to think that our moms were in the hospital giving birth for the last time on the same day. We thought we'd have two or maybe three, but that quickly changed. We have 5 so far, but after we announced that #4 was on the way everyone just assumes now that there will always be "one more" .
My mom has 4 siblings, my dad has 3, my FIL has 1 (who has 8 children) and my MIL has 1.
Of Rick's two siblings, one has the token-two and the other doesn't have any. Of my siblings, my sister has her token-two and my brother is getting ready to have his fourth next month. But then they are "done", despite my fervent arguments against sterilization.
As for my own children, Jeanne would like "4, or as many as God gives me", Matthew wants 12 (and he wants to be one of 12, too!), Timmy wants at least 17 , little Sarah just knows she wants to be a "mommy", and maybe sweet Patrick will be a priest. I was telling the big boys it would be cool to have a priest in the family, but they both insist they want to marry and have children. I'm hoping for lots of grandchildren!
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Molly Smith in VA
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Topic: How many of us with big families,
