Highest number children you know someone to have in real life?

I’m one of a lot due to remarriages so there’s half and step siblings as well as full . All very complicated, only my full feel like siblings though as there’s a big age difference.

my Nan and grandad had seven.

Husband’s dad is now up to 10 (5 mothers). My husband is the eldest, the youngest is younger than our own child. Pretty evenly spaced over 40ish years.

Just a hint to anyone who finds out that someone they know has more than the standard 2.4..... please do NOT say "Oh, don't you have a telly?!"

Its not funny and it is the LEAST original thing you can say. Its been said to me soooo many times and frankly its boring. If I dont eyeroll, you caught me on a good day.

That said, ime its mainly men who say it, implying that women only want to have sex with them if there is nothing good on TV which I think says more about them than me!

What’s a birthday child?

This thread is really interesting to me as I’m always reading about mothers of four on here, but I only know a couple IRL.

How many of his kids have anything to do with him? I going to go out on a limb and suggest that there was overlap between baby mothers more than once!

I suspect it might be an autocorrect from "birthed"

My great grandma had 10

That I know personally and ks the same age as me - 6
However my uncle (married into the family) is one of 21!

I know a mum with five, all in private school, and another mum with four. I have three and I feel like it seems more common than when I grew up, where most of my friends were one of two. But perhaps I just notice the threes! I’m hoping to have one more.

I know of two with 8 children (SW). Lots with 3 and 4.

My friend's (now elderly) parents were both from huge families - 11 and 13 kids I think.

My mum's father was one of 7 kids (quite 'well to do' Victorian farming family) but not many relatives there, he sadly died v young and none of the others ever married or had kids. (Legend has it that nobody was ever good enough for their v strict parents, but don't know if that's true. They all stayed in the big farmhouse all their lives except my mum's father.

ETA: used to work with someone who was one of 6. They'd gone for a fourth child and had triplets. He was a lovely guy, v posh family.

Middle class state primary school in the north east - there is one family of 5 kids and one of 4 that I know. Most are 2, some 3s and 1s

Someone I went to school with has 13 in total, ranging from 30 to 5. Her youngest 6 have been taken into care however.

One of my mother's cousins had 5 children.

I had a girlfriend who had 5 children from her two marriages.

My wife is the 8th of 10.

I am the eldest of 5. We were all in private school at the same time - I didn't realise how impressive that was on behalf of my parents until I became an adult. We had a fantastic childhood, but definitely controlled chaos!

At our school there were a few families with 4. The most I know in general of my generation is a family with 8 children, but they were religious.

My husband's parents are from families of 9 and 12 (not British).

I have a neighbour with 8 children! Their ages range from 18 years down to 5 years old! They are all living in a very full 4 bedroom house!

My darling Mum is one of 10!

Yes, I'm in rural south west between Bristol and Exeter. Lots of multi generations of the same family living in the area too. My dc4 has a distant cousin in his tutor group but there are a few families where there are 15+ siblings and cousins in the same school.

DF is one of 10. I have a friend with 5 DC - her fourth was twins!

My husband is one of ten.
My grandparents were all one of at least half a dozen.
Its less common these days i think.
I know someone roughly my age with 7. Other than that the average is probably 3

I am one of 9 and very happy to be so. We are a ‘middle class family from the south’ as has been referenced on here (not that it matters) and all of us have been through university and have good jobs, the older of us are married with families of our own, all bigger families by modern standards (more than 2).

As a parent of young DC now I know families with 4/5/6, it’s less common than it was when I was younger though.

7

Loads? Really wow. That’s crazy.

Slightly different scenario, but my friend grew up with a steady flow of foster children, and for most of his childhood there were 25 children (including him and his brother) in the house. They lived on a farm outside the town. There was a gigantic oak filled with cubbies the kids had built; it was a happy place. My friend regards the foster kids as his siblings and stays in touch.

But -- 25 kids at once??? I think his parents were saints or perhaps had extreme executive function. They turned so many young lives around.

My mother was one of 18! Most I know of someone in real life now among friends is 7 she kept going until she had a boy

Twenty years ago four children seemed completely fine IMHO. like… very normal. But I’m Catholic.

now I’m inching towards the age where you have to actually think about having children, long term goals… how do you even afford one these days?

yeah, I’ll pass 🤣