What constitutes a “large family”?

[LucieMorningstar]

Wondering what people believe constitutes a “large family”? More than 3 kids for example?

Just interested really as it’s something I hear a lot, but I’m not talking Radford family size!!

I think 4 is large.

I want 5. My plan is to have a 4 bed eventually with a room for the boys, room for the girls, me and husband room and a guest room. If we find a place with a garage or basement we’ll convert it and the oldest teenager still living with us can have it as a bedroom. So far I only have boys so we only need 3 rooms for now.

My parent’s house has 7 bedrooms but sadly is located in part of the country with very little in the way of jobs otherwise I’d hint they might like to downsize and give us their house :3

We have 3 and I'm pregnant with number 4. I'd love to go for a mega family but DH is one of 2 and thinks 4 is huge so I don't see it happening.

4+
I'm one of 4 and when I was little I was embarrassed of it - so ridiculous! but it was because most people had 2 or 3 in our circle of family/friends

4 and up. 3 seems pretty usual and also easily doable in a 3 bedroom house, 4 personally I think you need a 4 bed, it's not the sleeping (although 3 boys and a girl would be tricky) it's the downstairs space especially when they are older. For that reason I think 4 plus is a big family.

I really wanted 4 children but finances didn't allow. We ended up with 2 as when we looked at practicalities it just worked better for us.

4+ is large these days.
I'm one of 8 and we were always 'the family with all those kids'.

I would say four or more dc. I have seven and I felt like I had more children than average when I had my fourth. We are lucky to have a six bed house.

3 kids or more

To me 2 seems normal and 4 or more large.

I know this isn't a nice thing to say but I've personally never seen a large non-dysfunctional family, raising lots of children must be really hard.

I’d say 1-3 is normal round here. 3is seen as a largish number still. 4 or more kids is large I would say. It would cause adjustments away from normal housing, cars, hotel rooms, family passes, a lot of dining tables, even the good old 3piece suite. The world is generally set up for 2 adults two kid families.

I know this isn't a nice thing to say but I've personally never seen a large non-dysfunctional family, raising lots of children must be really hard.

If you call families with >= 0 children large I’d agree.

I think it's probably that most ordinary people can cope with meeting the needs of 1-3 kids but the more kids you have the harder it gets.

I know this isn't a nice thing to say but I've personally never seen a large non-dysfunctional family, raising lots of children must be really hard.

I think that's a huge (and totally incorrect) generalisation. Some people struggle to meet the needs of one or two children. Some people can cope with, and enjoy bringing up, many more.

Just growing up all the peers I knew from big families seemed to struggle with it and be quite painfully aware of the disadvantages they had compared to their peers from smaller families. I don't claim to have travelled the length of the country researching big families.

I think there must be a difference between someone who plans and thinks out the logistics of raising a big family and someone from a troubled background who keeps having unplanned babies.

3 is standard 4 or more is a large family as you need to think about larger cars etc.

Sharing Rooms is fine - teaches give and take and sharing and respect for each other hopefully.

I am eldest of 6 ...

4+. We have 4. We planned 3 which felt normal amongst our friends. Our number 3 was twins which suddenly made us highly unusual. Even though I was one of 5 and Dh one of 4 and our parents seemed to breeze through it, to me 4 seems an enormous number and I struggle with so many children! That might be the level of involvement expected of today's parents compared to the 70s and 80s.

I know this isn't a nice thing to say but I've personally never seen a large non-dysfunctional family, raising lots of children must be really hard

I knew a family with 8 children. They married young and were parents while just in their teens - and spread they children out over 25 years.

They both worked - though her p/t older children one was office manage married and starting he own family, one ran own business, one in a good trade - all productive happy members of society.

People can have very fixed ideas about large families.

On the whole I’m glad we stopped at three children – especially as they get older and more expensive. Though if we’d had one or two children I’d have been back at work full time years ago due to less childcare costs so parental attention has probably worked out about the same for three children as I’ve been around more.

The thought of financing 5 never mind 11 children through university would give me nightmares! Never mind all the washing and food bills. Maybe that is why I have stuck to one child!

I’d never finance my kids through university so it doesn’t concern me. If they want to go they can pay for it, if the rewards are worth the expense for them. Me paying for it just means they will treat it as a given not as something they should weigh the pros and cons of.

When you can't all fit into one car.

When you can't all fit into one car.

Fitting six kids into a car is easy, it’s doing it legally/safely that’s the issue.

Re functionality I would say some of the most functional families I know have lots of children. The mums are usually fully dedicated veteran SAHM. They are usually fabulously wealthy and live in huge houses. They often have children every two to three years. It's seems like they just enjoy having kids so keep having them. Meanwhile all of the one or two child families at school seem to be treading water. Most families where both parents work. Usually quite disorganised. Last minute plans for birthday parties and the like. Usually a bit on the poor side (hence having few children) or a bit old (having only had the first child at 40 or so hence not having more).