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

My friend has 9 children, ranging from 43 down to 28

and a lot of grandchildren

My friend is one of 7. Most people I know have 2, one of my dbs has 3, actually I’ve just thought, I’m one of 5! My dad was one of 5 my mum one of 3, my dh one of 3…

There was a family in our area with 11 children when I was growing up (southeast) and 10 of them were boys!

My dad was the second youngest of five.

Growing up, I went to school and dancing classes with some of the children of a family of eight. At the last count, as it were. Really nice family. They did plenty of activities, were friendly and jolly. One of the few surnames I can remember from childhood.

In my current life, I know a woman who must have about the same number, if not more by now. I can't say that we're exactly friends but I see her around the village and we say hello.

I don't know her personal circumstances but she and the children seem to be doing well. She's a force of nature really. She looks like peak Kate Moss or Vanessa Paradis and never seems to age or have any changes to her body from her pregnancies.

One day, I'll see her walking about wearing leggings and a cropped top with a perfect little bump out front and not an ounce of fat anywhere else, then a few weeks later, I'll clock her again with an unfeasibly chubby newborn in a little pram and her abs will have popped back in again to an almost concave stomach.

She's a very calm person and it obviously suits her. Again, the children are all very polite and well behaved. Mostly girls until recently. She now seems to be on streak of having boys.

I like her. I don't have a car and although she doesn’t know me very well at all - we know each other's first names - she'll offer me a lift home from the supermarket in the TribeMobile with no strings atrached if we run into each other.

My DP is one of 4, my grandparents all had 3 kids, my young colleague has 3, my neighbour has 3, I had several school friends with families of 3 or 4.

My great uncle was one of 9 originally (although not all survived to adulthood and that’s from quite a different era).

My parents had 2. I’ve got 1 and will have no more!

Biggest family with children that are still children would probably be my sister, she has 6. My mum was one of 8 children, so i have a lot of cousins, and my grandma was one of 13. I'm pregnant with my 4th and get comments all the time about how many it is.

I have lots of family members who had large families in my parents generation, but I'm not sure that's relevant these days.

My daughter has a friend who is one of 11. He's in his early 20s.

Of my mum friends I know a couple with 4 children and one with 5 children, but the youngest are now in secondary school. I also have a relative in her 30s who has 5 children.

I know of two families with seven, but amongst my friends there is a family of six (sixth was an accident) and five (they planned four, but the fourth was twins).

My brother's (late) wife was one of 12 (she was number 8)

My daughter’s friend is the third youngest of 9. When I talked to the mum and asked how she managed as I found two a struggle she said it was great as she had three each by three different dads , the eldest three in their twenties had left home , the three in their teens were great at looking after the youngest three . The mum said she could go out whenever she wanted !

There is a woman I follow on tik tok who lives in the village next to me pregnant with her 7th

I have 5 plus DSS who I’ve considered my own for over 20 years. I know two others with 5 but none with more.

DH’s Granny is 103 and she had 15. She still talks very honestly about the pros and cons of it. their circumstances changed drastically after child no 9 and she’s brutally honest that the younger children had a much better quality of life than the older ones. She’s also very brutally honest about the lack of choices she had. She’s outlived several of her children which she finds incredibly hard to live with.

I've got 8 but know someone who has 12

My husband’s family, his mum was one of 9 and his dad one of 8!

But I don’t know anyone around currently raising children with more than four outside of a blended family setup.

A good friend has 8. She's 47. She's lovely. Her kids are all amazing well rounded people. Her and her husband are amazing kind friendly people.

He wanted more. She said no.

She became a granny before her youngest had left key stage 1.

She had DD before and after school, and in school holidays, for free. She had DS on occasion too if needed. I would offer to babysit her kids, but she never needed me to. I would take her 3rd DS, who's a similar age to my DD and DS, on day trips to fun places they couldn't afford to take their whole family. We have so many fun memories of family trips that he joined me, DS and DD on.

Friend refused to take payment for DDs childcare, so i bought her very lavish gifts twice a year as thanks.

I'd love DD to marry her 3rd DS. He is such a lovely young man.They get on so well as adults as they spent so much time together as children...a girl can have a secret dream, eh?

My daughter who’s 28 was at school with a girl who was one of eight. Wealthy family, lived in a massive house, both parents barristers.
When I worked in housing I came across a young woman with five under two - two year old twins and newborn triplets!

7 children in a family on the road behind me. Same dad, three with the first woman and four with his current one. Pretty sure his neighbour, who he had an affair with, has a child by him too as they look identical. Both parents on benefits with 'bad backs'. All the older children now have children themselves and again, on benefits. The Dads side of the family are all on false disability benefits yet all keep having more children.

I don't know anyone working who has more than three.

Contemporarily, my cousin, a millennial, has 5 kids. That’s the most of anyone I actually know.

11 although shes a friend of my mums. Makes me laugh when mumsnet acts like 4 is loads, quite normal here 😂

I know a woman who has 7 grown up children. My colleague’s sister had 9, with a 30 year age gap, maybe more. Completely different ends of the social spectrum, no twins involved

8 (homeschooled Mormons). Husband is 1/4 and gran 1/10 so def not norm for these big families where we live in current times. I think more than 4 is selfish personally. All my friends have 1 or 2. I have 2. Even families of 3 are rare where we live.

6

I know several with ten, but they would be my parents’ generation, pretty common in Ireland. In my own generation, I think seven/eight and my children’s generation, I don’t think I know anyone with more than four. 2/3 being the norm I would say.

My teenage best friend was one of five. I loved going over to her house as every sleepover felt like a party. Her parents genuinely loved being parents and sacrificed a lot to give their kids everything they had. I remember my friend (a good 15 years ago) saying her dad was on £65k a year (which at the time I seemed like a lot of money) and her mum was a SAHM. It always felt very wholesome over there.

I have three kids and after growing up as an only child i always wanted loads of kids after meeting that family. Unfortunately we don’t have enough money to have any more.

I know a local family with 6. One of my friends have 4, most have 3 or 2. Of my generation, late 70s and Irish Catholic most of my friends were one of 5 or 6 and I thought this the norm and still think of it in a positive way. A few classmates were one of 7. My friends DS is one of 10, that's the most of someone I've met. As for my parents generation it was very different because there was no contraception and you had as many as God gave you. MIL was one of 11, a friends parent is one of 13. They describe being dragged up with nothing, boys send out to work at 12 or 13, older girls quitting school to mind younger siblings. Very very different from my generation and my kids experience.

Edited to add I just remembered DS classmate was one of 9