Large Families (curious question)

[Daisy-J&D]

We are a family of 3, my DD2 will likely be an only until maybe 4 yo. I've just started to notice how large some of the DIS families are. 6, 7...8 kids listed in some signatures.

If you have one of these large families, are they blended and including step-children?

HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DO IT?

I had commented when we were down at disney last year that there were a lot of younger families with lots of kids - 4+. I personally do not know anyone with more than 3 kids in real life!

 

[jennyjinx3]

We are a family of five...and yes it is busy!! Sometimes in the mornings before school I shake my head! Crazy chaos....but in a good way. I know a few families who have 4 or more kids and they claim after three it is no difference! I don't know though....our three are more than enough for us!!! Gotta love it

 

[DisneyBliss7]

We have five kids two girls and three boys It can be crazy and we are ALWAYS on the go! I love it! I would have just one more but DH is done! I had come from a smaller family just my sister and I and our parents(which is just as wonderful, my sister and I are close) but I always wanted a large family since I was a little girl

 

[Gumbo4x4]

I personally do not know anyone with more than 3 kids in real life!

My uncle was one of 12 children in his family. One of his sisters married into a family of 15 kids. You should see their reunions

I have a young coworker with 4 kids. They seem pretty overwhelmed at times But, I guess you get used to it. We're happy with our 2

 

[Jenny-momof3]

We have 4 kids...all 1 marriage. But spread very far apart in age due to infertility issues. My kids are 17,13. 7 and 2.

The hard part for me is having kids sooo far apart in age! My girls are in activities that require us to be gone all day long. Trying to keep a 2 year old quiet and entertained for 8-10 hours is quite the challenge!!

 

[Elmck]

DH and I have 6 kids the first 5 were stair steps number 6 was our unexpected blessing!! My kids current ages are 27,26,24,23,21 and 9. I also have 3 grandbabies!!

When the first 5 were little I had a lady stop me in the store to ask if I ran a daycare!!

 

[Gr8t Fan]

We have 4 kids + 1 marriage between us and most days at our house are pretty chaotic, but a lot of fun. Keeping track of school schedules, sports schedules, and doctor appointments is almost a full-time job.

Most people assume we are a blended family because our oldest is fair complected, blonde haired, blue eyed like me, our 2nd is fair complected, light brown haired, light brown eyed (a mixture of DH and me), our third has an olive complexion, black hair and dark brown eyes like DH, and our last is fair complected, blonde haired and brown eyed. DH gets offended when people assume that we're a blended family, I simply laugh it off.

 

[VAN]

I only have two children; however, come from a family of 14 children. All full siblings with same parents.

How do they do it ... lots of energy and staying involved in their children's lives. I grew up on a farm and worked right along side both parents. We lived in the country so were pretty much each other's best friends.

I know several people that have larger families and many of them home-school ... again, lots of energy and staying involved.

I actually think it is a wonderful thing to have lots of children, provided that you are able to give them the attention and love they need.

 

[blessedby3]

We are a family of 6...with 4 kiddos. Mine are also spread out by choice and they are from one marriage and I have been a stay at home mom since my first was born. They are 22, 16, 13 and 4. I love having 4 and always wanted 4 from the time I was young. I actually thought after number 4 that I would love to have another...but I had her at almost 41 and figured we better quit I dont feel like they are hard by any means. They all help out with household stuff and the older ones are a great help with their baby sis. I cant imagine our life any other way. My oldest is getting ready to graduate college in May and get married in July....thats a hard thing for me!! I love having my kids at home and this will be a real adjustment We know multiple families with 4, 5, 7, 9 and even 12 kids, so I dont consider us a large family by any means

 

[tigger_mommy]

Well, as you can tell by my siggy, I have 4 kids. We are a blended family though. 3 are my stepkids, but they live with me full time and I would't have it any other way. It's a chaotic life to say the least. Some days I wonder if I lost my mind when I married a man with 3 kids, who had full custody of them, all by the same lunatic woman too. I honestly don't know how we do it, but we do.

 

[Chelley00]

We have 4 kids. How do we do it? Lots of alcohol

I'm kidding. It takes lots of organization! The kids help us, the kids help each other. Sometimes it gets overwhelming and sometimes downright crazy, but I always tell everyone the good outweighs the bad. There are 4 kids laughing in our house instead of one or two. Our kids always have someone else to play with or hang around. There are always extra hands with chores or homework.

I think any family has it's challenges and good points, you just work with what you have.

 

[mjkacmom]

Almost all of my friends have 3. I love having a large family, with kids close together in age. It's never boring, and it's rare for someone to be lonely. Lots going on most of the time. I love watching my ds13 throw the ball with ds9, and teach him things. Dd11 and dd9 are bff's (dd11 was just gone for 4 nights - poor dd9 missed her so much!). Family game nights are really fun with a bunch.

I'd be lost with an only at this point (and it is weird if only one child is home, but that's pretty rare).

 

[stm61]

We have 7, a combination of mine, ours, and custody of family members kids. They're pretty spread out: the oldest just turned 20 and is in basic training, the youngest is 6. Four boys, 3 girls. Yesterday all the kids went fishing and Dh and I had the house to ourselves for the first time in years. We couldn't believe how quiet it was, but we certainly enjoyed it! It does get crazy at times, especially in the mornings. I miss the oldest, he was always the biggest help getting the younger ones out the door for school. We do without a lot of other things; no smart phones, no IPods, no other trips unless we're visiting relatives. We also live on a farm, so a lot of our food is home grown and canned. We don't do big birthdays and Christmas presents are limited. Sometimes it's absolute chaos, nobody can get along with anybody else, someone is always wearing something that someone else planned on wearing that day, etc. Like another poster said, it's rarely boring around here!

 

[NewmanFamily6]

Well they really all ours We do it like any other family does. Can't give any back so we do the best we can! We budget for trips and we everyday life

 

[Mel522]

We are a family of 3, my DD2 will likely be an only until maybe 4 yo. I've just started to notice how large some of the DIS families are. 6, 7...8 kids listed in some signatures.

If you have one of these large families, are they blended and including step-children?

HOW ON EARTH DO YOU DO IT?

I had commented when we were down at disney last year that there were a lot of younger families with lots of kids - 4+. I personally do not know anyone with more than 3 kids in real life!

I couldn't help but laugh at this. I live in Utah, and what you consider large is closer to average around here. My dad was 1 of 8, and my mom was 1 of 15. My grandma once said that the more there were, the easier it was. The oldest could take care of the youngest. My mom (being #12) was closer in age to nieces and nephews than to her oldest siblings, so she spent a lot of time at her sisters playing.

My grandma was a stay at home mom, and very organized. I guess when you're a family you just make it work. Not to mention that for the kids at least you don't know any other life, so it's all normal to you.

 

[ban26ana]

We only have 2 right now. Our plan was always to have 4 kids, but recently dh admitted that he wants 5-6. I have to admit, the idea is growing on me. He also wants to buy a small hobby farm, so I guess that would help financially. That is, until my "brown thumb" touches stuff.

 

[mouse2mouse]

We are a family of 6. Myself and the hubby and our DS 18 DS 16 DD 12 and DD 6. It does get very busy but we love it! I love how my older kids interact with the youngest. They will be great parents some day

 

[Reese]

We have 8 children. We thought we were done after our fourth child (there is a little break there). It was our first trip to the zoo with no diaper bag and such in tow and DH and I realized we weren't finished. We both kept head counting the kids and thinking we were missing one, made us realize that we wanted to have another child. From that point we just have never had the we're done decision. Just found out we're expecting number 9 in the fall.
We get alot of stares sometimes. I have noticed people counting our kids- believe me I already do that on a regular basis.
Really we don't notice much difference between having 8 kids and when we had 4. Our house is busy as we homeschool, but I'm not one for having a quiet, clean house anyways.
We also found as a large family Disney is one of the cheaper vactions that we can take. It has something for everyone or our age groups. That could be why you see so many larger families at Disney. I can rent a villa for over a week for what two nights at Great Wolf Lodge would cost us.

 

[laceemouse]

In the old days people had 10+ kids all the time. When I was a kid in the 60's it seemed like 4 or 5 was the norm, most of my friends had 3 or 4 siblings, as did I (and my dh too)
Now we have 4 and in the real world people think that is a lot but we homeschool and MOST homeschoolers have lots of kids, 4 or 5 is a smallish family in the homeschool world.
There are many reasons. One-most homeschool moms stay home. I would never want a huge family if I had to go to work every day. Exhausting! Two-homeschoolers just really enjoy their big, loud, busy families. Three-some people do it for religious reasons. The Bible says children are a blessing from God
We had 4 kids in 6 years. It was busy when they were little but now it is great fun, they are bestest friends with each other! I really wanted more but we started too late. HOWEVER, I expect 20 grandkids
Basically, if you choose to have lots of kids you may have to give up other things, but people who do it obviously feel like it is worth it!

 

[MOM POPPINS]

All one family here too! We have 5 kiddos our first four are precious girls and then we had our first and only boy. We thought we were done at 4 kiddos and our boy surprised us. We take vacations at Disney at least twice a year. We are DVC members so that helps a lot with our room. Tickets can get expensive though! Our oldest daughter just got married and graduates college in May. We are taking her and her new husband to Disney to celebrate, so our family keeps growing! We also homeschool!