Active discussions

Please or to access all these features

Talk
30 days only
Original poster

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

428 replies

Newsenmum · 22/10/2026 20:10

People talk about these crazy massive families that exist on news but what is the largest family you know? Im from quite a middle class area down south. Most families I know have one or two kids, sometimes three. I have one friend pregnant with her fourth and know one school mum with five! Very unusual though.

OP posts:
HelloCanYouHearMe · 22/10/2026 21:12

My mum is one of 9, my dad one of 13

Flipperthepriest · 22/10/2026 21:13

Millennial, I know two 10s.

millecent · 22/10/2026 21:14

My friend has 7 children. Works full time and has completed her degree whilst working too! I’m just in awe of her.

My grandmother was one of 17 but not all survived infancy.

WhatsItAllForAnyway · 22/10/2026 21:14

I know families with 14, 13, 10 and 7. Most families I know have at least 3 children. I think I tend to run in circles where families are a bit larger than average.

MrsMoastyToasty · 22/10/2026 21:15

A service user at my previous workplace had 12.
A friend of a friend is one of 15.
My friend has 6 kids. 25 years separate the oldest and youngest (full siblings)

CordwainerBird · 22/10/2026 21:15

Quite a few school mums have five - some close together, others with 4-5 years between each of the five.

I was at uni with someone who was one of 11.

TamarindCottage · 22/10/2026 21:15

My dad was the youngest of ten and had ten children with six women. I have three full siblings

Octavia64 · 22/10/2026 21:16

My SIL had seven.

eldest now 19 and then strict two year intervals..

three bedroom house!

InQuiresandplaceswheretheysing · 22/10/2026 21:16

I know two families with 6 children each. Both had 5 boys and one girl.

AllJoyAndNoFun · 22/10/2026 21:17

People I know - as in I consider them at least an acquaintance - 4, and that's like only 2 people. Of the rest, I'd say 2 most common but also some 3's and a fews 1's.

CoffeeCakeAndALattePlease · 22/10/2026 21:17

When I was at school there was a family with 19 kids which blew my mind.

I think the highest within my friends is 5 (and now 2 grandchildren) and she’s 46 like me. I can’t even imagine that as I struggle with my 2 sometimes!

however, the vast majority in my circles have 2 kids.

Norberta · 22/10/2026 21:18

I know someone (age 30 ish) is one of 10!!

LadyWiddiothethird · 22/10/2026 21:18

My Mum was one of twelve,she only had 2 children,but her brothers and sisters had around 8 each,I have lost count of how many cousins I have.

OnlyClothes · 22/10/2026 21:18

I think 9 (I’ve genuinely lost count). Aged 28 and under, with about 4 still at school maybe?

Going slightly older, with the youngest kids in their 20s and 30s, I know five families with 5 children each, but one of the families had stillborn twins so would have been 7.

A grandparent was one of 7 but for that generation it was unremarkable. And between them the 7 only produced 7 more children.

EveryoneUsingOutro · 22/10/2026 21:19

Out of my friends/DS and their DC age group, 4.

Out of people I know vaguely, one family is at 6/7 not sure, we have lost touch as they went religious nuttery and trad wife bollocks. I would say the husband is super controlling and likes his wife pregnant in the kitchen.

Older family had 7/8/9 kids, WW2 era and post war.

PrincessofWills · 22/10/2026 21:20

7

RosieHosie · 22/10/2026 21:21

I know two women who have had six children (all the same dad), although one lost her second at about two years old 😥

sunights · 22/10/2026 21:21

DS11 has a friend who is one of 8. I was chatting to her and she told me they celebrate their birthdays every 5 years to keep things manageable!

PassMeTheCookies · 22/10/2026 21:21

My granddad was one of 22 children, all single births to the same mother and father. Four of them were stillborn/didn’t survive infancy, so he grew up as one of 18 siblings. My nana was one of 13. Both Irish Catholic families.

They went on to have seven children.

The most I know from my own generation is five. There’s three girls I went to school with who each have five children.

PuzzledObserver · 22/10/2026 21:22

I have a friend in her late fifties who has 5 children. Her daughter has 4.

RosieHosie · 22/10/2026 21:22

Oh, my dad is one of six, but he is nearly 80 so was more common then (my mum is one of four)

Puffinsandcoffee · 22/10/2026 21:22

Of families I know, the largest number of kids is 13. Of families I know, of my own generation, the largest number of kids is actually just 4 (not including "blended families")

Pickledonion1999 · 22/10/2026 21:22

My dd briefly dated a lad with 16 siblings. She ended it because she couldn't cope with it.

Altodela · 22/10/2026 21:22

17 and I promise you I’m not making it up. She had her last baby a few months back

FlowersInPots · 22/10/2026 21:23

Does my family count? Dm is one of 10 and one of her sisters has 6 kids.

Biggest family was one who lived a few streets away. I went to school with one daughter. They had 12 kids, 11 girls and 1 boy all between 12 and 18 months apart and included 2 sets of twins.