Watching documentary about the family with 22 kids!

[mothersdayhmm]

The Radley family. How do they do it? They seem to be really good parents actually. I cannot imagine how you cope with so many kids though. My blood pressure is through the roof just watching this! There are multiple dogs as well! I have 2 kids (adults now) and that was enough for me. How will they cope if all 22 go to Uni? My brain is fried!

She was not 12 and Noel comes across as a thoroughly nice guy

Both parents seem extremely chill for the most part and come across as being able to weather anything whilst staying calm…I think that possibly helps a lot

I used to like them until they started flashing the cash a bit too much. They go to Florida most school holidays so they could certainly afford uni or help with house deposits but choose to spent their money on flash cars and expensive holidays.

No, only Chloe went to uni and dropped out fairly quickly.

They were both adopted.

I constantly feel torn between my 3 kids - I have no flipping clue how anyone copes with more.

Tattle is full of bitter trolls so I wouldn’t really direct anyone there

I'm pretty sure chloe is the only one who startedand didn't finish uni. Obviously not everyone is suited yo, or should go to uni.

@Someone2025 Sue was 13 , and however nice you think Noel is, that isn't- and wasn't in the 1980s- ok

Get over it, young people made a mistake, it happens quite a lot, she was 14 and he was 17 when they had their first child and they have been together ever since…move on

And anyway, I’m sure all the people on here commenting aren’t actually quite as good parents as they actually think they are

I haven't watched it so I shouldn't comment, but I don't see how anyone with 22 kids can be a good parent. There is something wrong with people like this, 4 should be the max and there's research on that.

she was 14 and he was 17 when they had their first child

He was 18.

She was shortly after turning 14 (she was 14 near the end of March and Christopher was born in early May). He had turned 18 in the December previously.

They likely can't use the cost of holidays for other stuff as the holidays are most likely freebies/l or specifically paid for by the tv company for content

He was three months off his 18th birthday when she conceived, and she was 13 and a half.

Thats a disturbing age gap when you’re in your teens. I was at high school in the 80s and an upper sixth former dating someone in the second/third form would have been as inappropriate then as it would now. And 13 year old mums were not the norm

before contraception women married young

They didn't marry all that young. There were isolated cases, such as Margaret Beaufort, but average age of first marriage for all women in the past was around mid-twenties. Source: The Cambridge Group for the History of Population and Social Structure, Cambridge

And a high proportion of children died in infancy; it was unusual for more than five or six to survive to aduthood, before the late Victorian period. And once they did all start surviving, people quite soon decided they didn't actually want twelve children, and started limiting their families.

Move on, they have been together nearly 40 years now and both seem very happy

*Radfords

Your children going to uni isn’t a measure of how good a parent you are. Degrees are not prestigious or a ticket to a good career anymore.

I'm one of 5.
What do you do if an activity clashes? 2 football matches at different places at the same time?
Parent teacher night clashing with a concert for another child?
My parents were interested in us all, and loved us, but I know for sure that we missed out on pursuing some of the things we wanted to; things I have been able to do for my own 2.
I am not criticising you for having 5 children, not at all, but I do wonder how you manage on a practical level.

I wonder how Sue will cope not continuing to have more babies? If she's so attached to being pregnant and having tiny dependent children. If the youngest is now 5. A new life for her now if that's the last ever baby.

Jimmy Savile , Rolf Harris and Huw Edwards all came across as throughly nice and entertaining guys …….

She was 14 when he, an adult at the time, had sex with her and got her pregnant. He is therefore a sex offender. But this is never really discussed. Creepy.

DM was one of seven. The elder DC looked after the younger ones and so never really had a carefree childhood - they left home asap. Two of the elder brothers had good careers but never had DC as they reckoned they'd done their childrearing when they were living at home and it had put them off DC!

You say chill, I say unengaged and neglectful

I'm not sure Jimmy Saville ever came across as nice, or entertaining.

She was a teenager. They were both only children who were adopted. Their children seem miserable as fuck and say they only care about them when they are babies. He deliberately misrepresents his income as 50k to maintain the benefits they get - they don’t claim unemployment but get tax credits and child benefit etc and conveniently earn enough every year to ensure they don’t go over the threshold. They can’t possibly give the children the attention they need. They never have play dates or do homework according to their shows. There are no toys, just bunk beds that look like prison. Shouldn’t be given attention unless it’s from a psychologist