To have 10 children

[Sapphire2012]

Hello waves I'm new around here. I'm Kirsty, mum to 10 lovely children. I'm curious as to what you honestly think of people with lots of children. I am not on any benefits and their child benefit goes into their savings accounts. (I hope this doesnt sound like I am bragging, I just hate when people assume we are scroungers, this is most definately not the case)

Kayah "it is as we parents know impossible to do by 2 grown ups"

Hard work maybe, but not imposaible. Well as far as I know not impossible with 9. Whether that all changes when you get to 10, I've no idea.

Really enjoying this thread.

Its a tough one really. My initial thought was of course you arent being unreasonable, once they were well cared for and provided for by their parents its no ones business and certaintly doesnt bother me how large another person's family is.

That said, I have being slightly swayed in my thinking by some of the responses on here - food for thought, I suppose. Definately not the environmental ones but thought secondcomings post:

( Add message | Report | Message poster TheSecondComing Mon 27-Dec-10 12:55:46
i agree quint,can't see how or why someone would have 10 kids-it's just not fair on any of the, once a say, 5 year old is in chool there's maybe 3 or 4 hours after school to have tea\bath\homework\playing\reading book etc. before bedtime. multiply that, intersperse feeding 9 other kids, cooking,dishwashing etc and there is\can be no time with parents who must be just 'processing' their kids or palming off responsibility to the older kids for the younger ones)

... did make alot of sense. Just appears logical. I dont know though, I dont know you or your dh or how you run your house. I cant imagine this working for us, but its possibly because Im quite disorganised, spontanious etc.. you could very well make this work fantastically. I couldnt.

All in all though, I would find it very difficult to look at any child and think "your parents were unreasonable for having you" so, no, your children are here and you are definately not unreasonable for having them (huge congratulations btw on BFP).

Reading this I have wondered though, what is the cut off point before a family is considered too big etc..

I think having 10 children is immoral with the population rising as it is

I would still love OP to answer on if she loves being pregnant and sees being pregnant as entwined with her identity.

And what it has done to her body physically. Can she skip or jump on a trampoline for example?

Oooh yeah and also, I'd love to know what an average day is like please!! (nosey)

I'd like to know why the OP has 10 children.

She said she uses a loose form of NFP, which clearly isn't effective.... does she not use other contraception as she want more children, or because contraception doesn't agree with her or for religious reasons or otherwise.

The OP isn't using NFP, unless what she means by that is No Farkin' Protection (at all). She's actively trying to get pregnant each time, which really isn't the same, is it?

What does NFP stand for?

NFP = natural family planning. About as effective as tying a knot in your hanky.

I think it's completely unreasonable to have a large family, for environmental reasons. With world population at current levels and no sign of any real drop in consumption of energy and finite resources, we are storing up a lot of trouble for ourselves if we carry on blithely having so many children. What if they all have at least one child of their own? Let alone going on to have ten of their own.

I also find it very creepy when a woman constantly wants to have a baby around. Babies are lovely but the greatest joy they can give you is watching them grow up and turn into independent beings.

Kayah "it is as we parents know impossible to do by 2 grown ups"

Hard work maybe, but not imposaible. Well as far as I know not impossible with 9. Whether that all changes when you get to 10, I've no idea.

--
Well - if you were to breastfed all your babies is would be.
and have all 9 or 10 of them under the age of 11
try to breastfed 2 at a time (I know some do), get others ready, changed, fed...

were yours in such close age and breastfed until the age on 6 months each?

No skin off my nose how many children you have

OP, i know its been asked but why do you not use contraception and have you BF your children?

I don't think NFP is necessarily uneffective. We have three and we practiced NFP between pregnancies. Each time I didn't get pregnant until we decided we wanted another, and then the month we decided to try it happened, each time. But I was very regular (every 28 days, 2pm on a Thursday) and I got ovulation pain.

One of guys I knew at work was of Chinese origin, all of the kids were born in the UK

he was the youngest one, his parents never learned to speak English, he never learned to speak Chinese...

I guess this is kind of representation of what the youngest child in a large family be like
not needing or eventualy wanting to communicate with his parents
both his parents were dead when he was working and I met him, he did very well for himself, but was indeed a very strange character...

OMG- imagine not being able to communicate with your parents like that!

I know - we couldn't believe it too.
He said his older siblings were translating for him.

I think is is fine when you are supporting them all, as your family is.

My mom was one of 11, my grandfather was one of 13. I would have had a large family if we were able to afford to.

onmyfeet
but they are not actually supporting them in real terms are they (see earlier posts)

I have been thinking about this thread and there is something not right about it all, definitely not right. My troll radar is not great, but I think it's a wind up of sorts

Kayah - I'm a bit confused now. What it is that you were saying we all know is impossible?

OK - I said it is impossible, to look after 10 kids under the age of 11, whilst breastfeeding each exclusively up to the age of 6 months.

That is my take on it.
If someone is able to - I would relly love to know how.

Obviously I am writing it assuming that the father works full time, leaves home at 7:30 and is back by 6:30 earliset and the mum is left on her own.