18 kids and counting C4 tonight (9pm 10/12/2015)

[seasidesally]

new episode shall we have a thread about it ??

Maybe the publicity is the only way she can get attention without it being fir sex?

18 kids and a 10 bedroom house? no way most of us would even think about sex

I think the pregnancies are an attention thing, ironically, their behaviour is depriving their children of attention and possibly leading to the same issues. I can see the eldest daughter going the same way, whatever she says.

I found an article/interview Sue did that stated that her birth Mum had eight children taken into care before she had Sue (who was removed at birth). Maybe she wants to prove that it is possible to have a large family and look after them?

I think the thread is turning quite holier than thou. Obviously there's issues, but which family doesn't have any issues, two loving parents who also love each other is a better family to be in than some I know where there were few kids but who couldn't wait to grow up. If anyone, it's only their children who are in a position to judge ( once they grow up and become parents themselves), and their eldest grown up children don't appear to be unhinged or anything, despite growing up with so many younger siblings.

Also they never actually share the house with 18 kids, one died in the womb, eldest ones live separately and will continue to move out as time goes on. My grandma was one of 17 :).
If anything, for me 5 dogs is more but then half the families I know with 5+ kids have that sort of set up, cats, dogs, rabbits, ginea pigs, chickens etc...however some of them live on farms or smallholdings where it's a routine thing.

Such people are generally just far more relaxed about the state of their skirting boards and seem to enjoy life better than many.

Why did sue's mum have her children taken into care and did she have more after sue (no 9?) very interesting.

And the mum nearby of sue's is presumably her foster mother not her birth mother then?

I wonder what strategies the children's schools have to manage these parents. I bet they support them a lot with bundled child updates/ the admin etc as I just can't see on a normal parent/ school relationship how sue would be able to meet the regular parent/child contract for each child and just keep up to date.

The programmes never show her doing paperwork/ buying costumes/ birthday presents for kids parties/ fitting correct size shoes on children's feet/ ingredients for school cooking etc all the 'minor' admin type tasks that take I'd guess about 2hr on an average week per child.

London no that would be her mum not her foster mum not her her birth mum just her mum. Think before you type.

All I wondered 7 was whether the mum nearby is the same person who had her own children taken into care or not.

I'm not attempting to make out she is not a 'mum' as she clearly sounds like a lovely caring woman :)

Seems very unlikely it'd be the birth mum, since she must have had massive, massive problems to have so many children taken into care.

They did show her organising a birthday party, a christening party etc, buying presents - that featured more than necessary imo, in previous episodes.

I also noticed (not this episode) that one kid was wearing glasses (so the problem was identified and taken care of, no one will even tell you on NHS to have your children's eyesight checked(not like with vaccinations), you are supposed to know and keep up to date with appointments.

I might be mistaken, but I think there was a child in braces? If yes, that involves being quite on top if your kids dental health etc, and not straightforward at all on NHS either, though I suppose it might vary from area to area.

A lot of these above posters are just people not thinking outside of their own situation. I know it definitely does not take me 2 hours per child per week to organise birth parties and costumes or the like. One of the above stated electric bill prices is higher than my mortgage!

I think the Radfords seem like decent parents and I enjoyed the episode.

London I know what you meant, however when someone adopts a child they are their mum. Not a foster mum or otherwise. Sorry for being snappy though.

I can't work out why they are so cramped into the bedrooms tbh. One room had 6 beds in! Surely with only 14 actually at home, baby in their room. That leaves 13 in 9 bedrooms so should be plenty to have one each for most with just 4 sharing 2 per room. Not masses all cramped in.
If they like sleeping like that 6 per room there should be loads of empty rooms as playrooms/ studies/ quiet rooms/ tv room etc, but there doesnt seem to be

Doesn't Sophie have the basement that takes up some of the rooms?

Dressing rooms?

I would assume the rest of the rooms are full.of "stuff/crap"

I mean where was all the stuff. toys books games clothes x boxes. shoes etc

Sue had a blog (not the Radford one) that she posted in that told quite a lot of every day stuff. I don't think that it has been updated for quite a few years now. I remember one of the children had a serious health scare (meningitis I think) and was in hospital for a good while. The family just rallied around as any family does.

I love their bunk beds I want Noel to commission me some. Sophie was in the basement but has her own place and son Chris moved back home after Sophie left. I think they always have 1 bedroom as a nursery, 1 for parents and several of the older children have their own rooms. They say that the younger ones all want to share.

Nodowntime this is MN where some think that mismatched pj's is tantamount to abuse. I have seen much worse criticisms of them before.

I would like to see a regular show that portrayed everyday life; just the mundane stuff to see how they manage.

I always assumed that the tv company sent a shit load of toys and other clutter to storage, to avoid it being too visually distracting....

I don't understand the new pram for each child either. Surely that's a huge waste of money, and if it was the greatest pram 10 months ago it can't be too bad for the next child.
Our one was used 4 years across 2 children. Then given away in as new condition. Took us ages to choose one that suited also so I can't imagine the hassle of that every year.
They must just need a double all the time

Yes I don't get that either. A few programmes ago I think Noel said that Sue gets an average of 3 prams per child.

Yeah, I found that boggling. Especially since most of them only have in the region of a year between them. There are two gaps of 10 months . How do you get through that many prams? The one they showed wasn't a double though. Maybe part of the reason there are so many is that there are numerous in operation at a given time - a Maclaren that the older girls use taking out a little one, a couple of doubles for bigger trips out, a pram, etc etc.

That said, our bee did us fine for all three. It's bloody knackered now, but it did sterling work for 6.5 years and will see us through!

Yes, that's odd.
I always said if I had another I'd have a sling and from birth McClaren, as that's most practical.
Not saying that's most practical for Sue but surely she'd have worked it out by now rather than spending money for the sake of it on another collection.

yankeecandle4

I have a friend who had 4 boys (she now has a 5th child, a girl), and a 4 bedroom house. She complained that they ended up using one of the bedrooms as a junk/storage room(there was still a single bed in it), and the other as an office/cinema room, because while the baby (18 months at the time) was with the parents, the oldest boy (10) didn't want to be "all lonely" in his bedroom(literally door to door to his little brothers), and moved out of there after one night. In the one for all bedroom there were 2 bunk beds and mountains of toys and books, the kids seemed to prefer it that way. There was about 2.5 years between three oldest.

So, it's very likely that esp. the younger Radford kids actually prefer sharing. :)

I was agog at the prams too. My second child is in the pram I bought for the first in 2011. Isn't that what normal people do? It's so wasteful.

Mind you, I did recall seeing a post on my FB (a friend must have "liked" it) where they had been talking about a big reveal of their new pram coming soon... swiftly followed by a blog post about that white pram we saw on the programme. It was such blatant advertising I'm sure that particular one must have been a freebie. They can't all have been though.

Also saw them pushing a Bugaboo Donkey, unless that was their daughter's.

Sue sure is a collector in so many ways!

Noel said in the episode that they were buying a pram in that it was the cheapest pram they had ever bought. It was £500!

I had one stroller thing that lasted 3 children. For some though the accessories that come with a baby is part of the whole experience.

ot it's all part of the hoarding....