how do larger fmalies have breakfast?

[FluffyMummy123]

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Limit the choice. Toast or cereal.

Don't do what grandma (my mum) does when they're at hers. 'Now darlings what would you like....?' Open ended choices are baaad. Dc come back with tales of the oddest breakfasts (chicken soup) at grandmas

PMSL @ Cappucino

trying to ignore all this lot with their super arge families (altho my dad came from a family of 13 {only 9 survived tho}, and DH's grandma and grandad also came from families of 12+ too)....breakfast tips......

holidays is a free-for-all. Ie, I lay in bed as they get up and go and make their own breakfast as they want......well....if we have no plans for the day that is!

school days.....I used to put out all the bowls and cereals the night before, and then just put the milk and juice out when I come down in the morning, but it has been getting ever more common for them to have toast/pancakes/croissonts/fruit and yoghurts instead, so I have now stopped that.

breakfast seems fairly easy and calm for me, BUT I am aware that it is just from my own perspective as I am clearly used to a certain amount of mayhem and disorder anyway.

I have my coffee tho before any of them get up, so I am already fueled up for them!!

and, on school days, we all start getting up at 6.45 and jumping in the shower so at times breakfast can be slightly staggered, due ot each getting ready seperately.

oh, plus my older girls leave the house at 7.55, before the smaller ones start, so in a way, tis 2 eating and then 3, so not soooooooo manic.

ds1 makes cereal for ds2 and dd while i dress the little twits and shout at ask ds2 to hurry up and get dried and dressed then i feed babytwit while the others are eating/finishing theirs and ds2 puts bowls etc ready in dishwasher. I will make toast or pancakes if required and if they have got enough time.

that is a school day of course at weekends and holidays its a free for all and good luck to them.
for me personally teatime is the nightmare time.

Nan ahd 16 that lived to adulthood (several didnt survice the war though- think 12 made it apst that event).

Think they used to just get what they could and make do.... bread, jam if they were lucky; dinner was Salmon from the local rivers if they could poach it, and sometimes hedgehog. They also had a dog trained to steal food- someone on MN had a go at me for that once becuase of course I ahd a say 27 years before I was born LOL (dad second youngest)

However- for more normal famillies- ds's eat at table in mornings, DH gets back from work at 6.45 so not involved, I grab coffe and brekky in front of the news.

20 pregnancies each, good lord.

Although i am at #6 and trying for #7 i cannot fathom the mayhem with that many children.

DH has said 12 sounds like a good number, he would, he is not the one reaching new levels of baby body destruction, pain and suffering each time i become pregnant.

With my great gran, not all the children survived, and it was taken as read that they older girls would spend a large amount of the time looking after the younger children. The boys were wolking with their father from the age of 12 onwards, so there was no taking to school, or dropping off at out of school activities!

It was more like having 'blocks' of families IYSWIM. By 12 they were expected to be largly self sufficient, and wage earning.

At 14 my aunt went to London on the train from southwales to move in with a family as a maid......and we worry if they can go to a party at that age!

MB, I'm really beginning to wonder whether we're related. My maternal grandparents are from Ogmore, but I'm pretty sure there's some Rhondda a bit further back.

Shit, you are my long lost sister!

My cousin's dh is from Ogmore!. Just over the mountain from us.

Griff Rhys Jones' family is from Ogmore

There's posh!

Oh yes, deeply posh

I've climbed up the Bwlch, you know. It very nearly did for me.

Shit, so have I!

I did it with guides.

It nearly killed me. I think that it acrually would kill me nowerdays.

I did it with stoners. I remember that there was an ice-cream van at the top, despite it being feckin freezing up there. And some feral sheep.

Those sheep where clever. I can, if you like, tell you a story about them!.

Go on then.

(paused while I went and fetched my kids in)

The sheep were kept on the mountianside by a cattle grid, but the drop underneath the grid was only about 8 inches deep. The sheep figured this out and would walk in between the bars.

the farmers then lowered the grid so the sheep could no longer do this without getting stuck. The sheep then learned to roll over the grid!

Rhondda sheep. Cunning little buggers!

(paused to make dinner, eat dinner, wash dishes, wash children, put children to bed, attend PTA meeting)

Actually, I'm sure I've heard that story before - probably about the same sheep. The ones I met tried to steal my ice-cream.

Never try to take an ice-cream off a stoner who's just climbed a steep hill. Things turn nasty.

Well DD1 lays the table with a cloth and flowers and napkins in silver napkin holders with the 5 children and our initials on.
Me , DD2 and dd3 prepare breakfast
Mondays: boiled eggs and soldiers
Tuesdays: Homemade muffins and bacon
Wednesdays: Porridge
Thursdays: Cheese, ham and home made bread
FridaysL kippers and poached eggs.
Saturdays: Sausage and Egg mcmuffins - out of course
Sundays: Brunch: sausages, hashbrowns, poached eggs, beans, tomatoes at about half 10.

DSs clear up and wash up.

DH sits around looking smug and fertile.

we all skip out in our matching curtain outfits singing our way to school.

Its wonderful, truly wonderful.

LOL at Flum.

TBH, I don't think my DD's aged 15 & 18 even have breakfast on school days as I tell them they're old enough to make it themselves as I have the LO's to look after!

At 15 & 18 they're old enough to make their own brekky if they want it are they not? If they became anorexic then I'd be worried. But they're not. Occasionally if the nanny is in early she'll make them something.