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Sixteen kids and counting....

199 replies

BarnYardCow · 09/01/2013 12:28

Anyone else looking forward to a new episode on Friday where I think they have just had number 17, plus one of the elder daughters is expecting too!

OP posts:
Oodsigma · 13/01/2013 08:55

I wasn't sure Sue drives as they talked about him coming home to do the school run

janey68 · 13/01/2013 09:04

Yes, noel seemed to be starting work at 5 and then having to nip home later to help get the kids ready for school and drive them there

He seems a very easy going patient chap and clearly if it works for them then good luck to them. But I certainly picked up that the underlying theme was that sue really likes being pregnant and having babies (and holidays) and its more about what she wants than the other family members. All she has known since age 14 is having kids and doing housework, so I wonder whether it's a comfort zone thing- she literally doesn't know anything else.

I too was quite shocked about the medical side, where it was clear that she is now putting herself at serious risk with each pregnancy. I don't know how anyone can continue knowing that

Yes , it's definitely a dependency whatever she said about it not being so

IrnBruTheNoo · 13/01/2013 11:12

"sue is doing what she wants"

I agree with you here, Janey. She's not thinking of the rest of the remaining siblings, when she is fulfilling her own desires to have even more children. It is very selfish of her.

CremeEggThief · 13/01/2013 11:23

She does seem addicted to newborns. I don't think her eldest daughter, who had her first child too, will follow in her footsteps somehow. In fact, I'd say that'll be the case for most of the kids.

greencolorpack · 13/01/2013 11:32

In my experience the children of big families who grow up in crowded surroundings will do anything they can to avoid living like that as adults, thus that mother is creating sixteen future mortgage owning tax paying, successful people, and shes doing the nation a great favour. They will probably also know how to organise their own children and households very well having been set a good example by mum and dad.

janey68 · 13/01/2013 12:17

Greencolorpack- that may very well be true, but I don't think it's having a large family which creates that . They would still be good parents if they'd stopped at 2 or 3 kids. So I think it's pushing it a bit to claim that they are doing society some huge favour by having 16!

pigletmania · 13/01/2013 12:43

I totally agree janey, it seems to be what she wants, is not considering the chidren when she has another child. She said she will not stop at 16, so could end up reproducing until s is biologically not able to, she is 37, so that could be another 12 babies, which is unacceptable and down right selfish. She set a precedent by starting at the beginning of her fertile years at 14. Time to stop.

pigletmania · 13/01/2013 12:55

Her husband could put his foot down, I think they are both addicted

IrnBruTheNoo · 13/01/2013 15:18

agree with you too pigletmania I think the mother is a lovely person, but quite naive to think that she's doing it with all the best intentions. I am sure it is lovely growing up in a large family, but the other side to it is that the children are getting less and less attention from Mum and Dad. They are not going to get the same opportunities other children get in life, which I do find sad. I don't just mean in financial terms, but emotionally. How on earth can you possibly have one to one time with each child in that family when there's only the two adults??

IrnBruTheNoo · 13/01/2013 15:19

greencolorpack that seems very naive to think on these terms. Having two children brought up with the same values in a household would produce like minded adults too, surely??

oldebaglady · 13/01/2013 15:22

janey, unless she is forcing him to have unprotected sex, then he can't be neutral bystander in the amt of pregnancies she's had! She didn't get herself pregnant! He knows by now how it works!!

IrnBruTheNoo · 13/01/2013 15:25

But the main focus was Sue in the documentary, Noel was only just getting a word in occasionally, IMO. She was the one who said they may not be done just yet near the end. I was speechless when she said that! Is she not considering the others involved in all of this? The children she's already brought into the world?

Galaxymum · 13/01/2013 19:59

They seemed a lovely family, didn't seem to have any issues. But I came away from the programme thinking how lucky she had been that there seem to be no children with medical problems or SEN. If she had had one child with serious health issues and been spending hours on end at hospitals or had to stay in with a child and fighting for that one child's rights I doubt she and he would have had time to produce many more.

greencolorpack · 13/01/2013 23:30

IrnBru maybe I am naive but I have known a few women who grew up in huge crowded, poor houses and they were obsessed with being "successful" and
Living in big houses, over accommodated. They worked hard at school and university and they paid their taxes.

janey68 · 13/01/2013 23:54

But so do many children from smaller families grow up To do well and get good qualifications and jobs. If you look at the evidence, the correlation is between having loving, supportive parents, oh and if the parents are in employment then that makes it more likely the children will in turn be in employment. Thats why (hopefully) the radford children will do well. Not Because there's 16 of them .

lollydollydrop · 14/01/2013 00:34

It made me sad the part where one of the little boys said that his mum would probably just keep on having babies and forget about him Sad

oldebaglady · 14/01/2013 13:12

yeah I remember that bit, the little ones saying how when they grow up and move out someone else will take their place Sad

IrnBruTheNoo · 14/01/2013 14:30

"It made me sad the part where one of the little boys said that his mum would probably just keep on having babies and forget about him "

It says it all, really. How special do you feel when you're one of 16.

fancyanother · 14/01/2013 15:31

I've just decided to watch this after reading all the threads on it. I feel like I watched a different programme to some of the people on here! I didn't think many of those kids looked entirely happy at all. Rather they looked resigned. A lot of the boys especially seemed to just look a bit sad. Do they not have school friends at their birthdays? Do they just spend time with each other all the time??
And Sue did just seem obsessed with the newborns. Noel was left to look after all the older kids on holiday while Sue paddled about with the baby, he was doing all the cooking/ looking after/ ferrying around while she presumably did the housework/ ironing ( things you try and do with no kids around) I presume she was in hospital for so long with the last one because of the risk of bleeding/haemmorage, so they couldnt send her home, she was worried but clearly not worried enough to give it a rest and think of her existing family.

juule · 14/01/2013 15:42

I don't understand why Noel couldn't have gone home once they realised the hospital wasn't going to induce until the following day. He could have been there for his 12 year olds birthday.

IrnBruTheNoo · 14/01/2013 17:44

exactly fancy! Think we must be the minority on this thread, as it seems everyone else has the rose tinted glasses on and thinks it just ever so lovely to have such a big family and isn't it just wonderful they have so many brothers and sisters growing up, and Sue is fulfilling her dreams of being a mum to so many children and she just loves all those babies....well, yes, it's nice but if it was that brilliant why isn't everyone doing it? There's a good reason for that, most folk realise that financially and emotionally raising sixteen children (through choice) would be a headache. I personally could not think of anything worse. The programme was entertaining to be honest, they have used their situation and sensationalised it to make money (I am sure the small bakery they own is not enough to keep them all fed and clothed and provide holidays and passports).

IrnBruTheNoo · 14/01/2013 17:46

I do have to say that several of the children who were free to make comments on the documentary made a joke of the situation they're in, but many a true thing said in jest Sad I do feel sorry for them not getting enough one to one time with each parent. It's so unrealistic, you cannot manage that every day with each child.

Sue does seem a genuinely nice person, but has never known how to be anything else in life. She's led a rather sheltered life that seems to be all about babies babies and more babies.

juule · 14/01/2013 17:55

" I do feel sorry for them not getting enough one to one time with each parent. "

Depends what you consider enough one to one time. Would an only child whose parents work and who has out of school clubs/classes have enough one to one time? Do children at boarding schools have enough parental one to one time?

IrnBruTheNoo · 14/01/2013 19:22

Rather than taking my comments and twisting them, I think it's quite clear that I meant each child getting regular time with one parent every few days or so. How on earth can this happen when there's 16 children in a household? Let's be realistic here.

As others on this thread have pointed out, there were children who did not look happy about the news of yet another baby being born into the family. The more babies brought in, the more the children felt pushed out.

IrnBruTheNoo · 14/01/2013 19:24

IMHO, it's extremely selfish to carrying on having baby after baby without considering the repercussions it will have on the existing children.