Sue Radford, baby 21 is here..

[FortuneFrimble]

Daily Fail story here
21 babies! That's some achievement. I cannot believe her body is still in one piece. I feel sorry for those kids though. There's absolutely no way they can all have the individual attention they need growing up. Four kids maybe, perhaps 6 at an absolute push but 21 seems like collecting trophies for a hobby to me. It'd be interesting to see what families those children decide to have when the time comes. It seems like she's putting her own want for babies ahead of her existing children's wellbeing & that isn't healthy. I'm curious that she's practically guaranteed herself an endless supply of babies as her children have children. But they're supposedly paying for everything themselves so we're not allowed to say anything against them. I don't agree with it. Tell me I'm being U.

zzzzz, you "have no idea" why SS came out to the family I reported for locking young children in the bedrooms overnight!

Well I know it wasn't to congratulate the parents on what good job of parenting they were doing. It was regarded as abuse and would be by any sane person.

Defend the awful Radfords all you want but you are definitely in a minority

Does sleep training even work at 6 weeks. They are tiny at 6 weeks and surely too young to be trained at anything. Also aren't they meant to feed during the night due to having small stomachs?

I don't think anywhere credible recommends shutting in a separate room at 6 weeks

Well I know for a fact that SS made regular visits. They didn't just go the first time and say "oh everything is fine goodbye"

How on earth can anyone think locking a child in a room overnight is ok? The child could need the toilet, be sick, be scared etc. I certainly call it abuse but even if you don't you surely have to admit it is not good parenting.

I'm way past baby making years but even I know that a newborn baby should not sleep in a different room, it should be in with one or both parents next to their bed.

They pay their own way and as long as their kids are happy and content, its all that matters.

The first few programmes about them and other large families were kinda interesting. But the ones where they go on holiday, meet up with another large family, and don't seem to have any fun - they are really quite dull. I can't see them making many more of these.

Also, people saying they don't claim benefits as if that is a great thing - surely it'd be better to claim all they are eligible for rather than sell their kids' private lives to a tv channel.

I’m pretty sure nowhere credible recommends shutting in a separate room at six weeks

My youngest outgrew her Moses basket at around that age and had to go in her cot (actually a cot bed, so a bit bigger). We lived in a tiny little cottage at the time, no room for the cot in our room, so no choice but to put her in her own room. Door shut as we have always had cats. She was fine. I refuse to believe that we are the only people in the history of the world who have had to do that due to space issues. I suspect it is, in fact, pretty normal.

I like to think you didn't just shut the door and ignore her crying though

I’m not defending the locking in or most of the Radfords parenting choices, just pointing out that not everyone has the option to keep the baby in their room indefinitely.

No, I absolutely didn’t, snuggy.

“They pay their own way and as long as their kids are happy and content, its all that matters.”

So the kids have no books, aren’t read to, aren’t encouraged with their homework or and no external hobbies. They’re locked in at night and aren’t allowed overnight access to their parents or to the bathroom at night.

It seems like their only source of joy, or even of being “content” is their sense of identity as part of a large family. It’s almost like a cult.

Do the older kids get to express their personalities? Do they have their own rooms, or just share with one sibling so they can put crap on the walls of sports’ stars or singers or actors or whatever? Presumably with 10 bedrooms the bigger kids do get their own space.

Most of their parenting choices aren’t choices, in this context, are they? They’re “we don’t have time for hobbies, clubs, books, homework, overnight wakings” so we don’t believe in reading and we tell people 6 week babies can self-soothe”.

I was one of 5 - and despite my mother only being 28 when she had her 5th child so she had lots of energy...she really only had time to cook and clean for everyone. She did her absolute best to make sure we were provided for, but sadly that sort of close relationship I have with my 2 children was not something she had the time to do with 5 children. I'm very much live and let live - but with 21 children you must go some days not speaking to every single one!

@DonDrapersOldFashioned not trying to be argumentative but I don’t think that’s the norm at all, most people do ensure their kids are in the room with them and these days there are many, many options of size cot and crib so most people manage. I know of a large family where mother kept her child in a Moses basket next to her till 11 months so in reality a child would not out grow, one unless very large, by 6 weeks. It was a choice you made. The earliest my large baby physically outgrew a basket was 16 weeks (99th centile) so I’d say you felt she was quite big and moved her which was common years ago.
Aside from this the Radfords bedroom is perfectly big enough for a cot or Moses basket for 6 months as they’ve vlogged it.
(Waits for all the enormous babies that did physically outgrow Moses baskets at 2 weeks 😂)

11 months in a Moses basket?! That baby must’ve been absolutely tiny! I don’t know of any babies in real life that have stayed in one past 4/5 months
My third was enormous and outgrew his at around 9 weeks - and no I didn’t ‘feel he was big’ he was touching all 4 sides of it
He wasn’t put in a room on his own though - I do not agree with a 6 week old being put in their own bedroom at all!

I think it's gross!

@fallingout, my third was also 99th percentile and used to ‘startle’ a lot in her sleep, every time she did it she smacked the side of the basket and woke herself up crying. So yes, we moved her out of choice because she outgrew the basket and our room was too small. There are lots of families in very small accommodation, all over the UK (not talking the about the R’s). It’s fine that your experience doesn’t reflect mine but that doesn’t mean mine is invalid.

Don my daughter did that, she was a real arm flicker in her sleep. So I reconfigured my bedroom, dragged the cot beside my bed meaning to get out of bed I had to crawl to the end. I found this preferable to her being in her own room.

It's not the own room thing on of itself, I get that baby being in a room with an adult for all sleeps isn't realistic for everyone, it's the ignoring them crying.