19 kids and counting / safety

[MommyTVFan]

Hi
Followed Sue and Noel Radford and family on our tv programmes & see they have a new show on tomorrow (29/12/16).

Something I don't get is child safety in this and other larger families.

I mean I had 3 under 7 and I watch 2.5y old all the time, even when he is in older siblings room as there's bunk beds etc and even dressing up clothes can be dangerous

I know the Radford's have super high bunk beds and they always have around 4 kids under 6y I wonder how they supervise them? Or do you think kids like these and in other larger families are in hospital much more often ?

Of course they do expat, indirectly anyway. Someone might see this on active threads, click on it and decide to watch their show. by posting about them on a discussion forum, it means that we are interested in them, whether or not we agree with their choices.

I wonder why channel4 / programme producers didn't

• get them a psychologist / therapist each to discuss adoption / trauma issues (especially Noel, he seems more 'with it' mentally and emotionally) (not film it, just discuss afer to camera)

• or another angle, sensitively help them find their birth parents or families?

Seems slightly odd to uncover 2 interesting issues then just focus on freak show family size comparison & encourae chat of more babies.

Why would they?

As long as they keep making babies, they are bringing in money to channel 4 by people watching the program

I doubt the tv company care if they need therapy. It makes easy tv just putting a camera on them and filming. As a previous poster said, the shit will likely hit the fan when they can't conceive any more.

I'm from a big family and it was horrendous growing up. We had no childhood because we had to raise younger siblings and mother them. We also had to become caters for our mother who was ill and couldn't cope with us kids. It was horrendous and I find this programme distressing to watch. The utter selfishness of this couple give me the absolute rage. Stop adultifying your kids, if you're going to bring kids into the world then give them their right to be children ffs. Stop imposing your lifestyle choices on all your kids. Just stop.

It's really interesting to hear from kids from large families. I'm one of three so have no idea what it's like.

cuddle That sounds awful

I do agree Noel comes across as creepy but TBH I think he also has something going on LD wise, I get a similar vibe as from Sue

Personally I think larger families just come down to how you parent. I'm one of the older ones in my family and I was never expected to parent the little ones. We had plenty of attention from our parents and I (and all my siblings) love our big family.
As an adult my eldest dc is 6 months younger than my youngest sibling and as a result I do end up parenting her a little (because they are very close and have play dates etc and I'm the adult)
I'm pregnant with number 4 at the moment and plan on having more in the future (although not as many as my parents - thats personal choice, not because of my upbringing though) and honestly think it's all down to the parenting.
I think it's also good to remember that although sue has 19 kids, she doesn't have 19 CHILDREN, some of them have moved out, some of them are adults living at home, one of them unfortunately was still born etc etc. She probably doesn't get to listen to her children read every night, however it's not the end of the world! Maybe she listens every other day, maybe it's once a week, maybe she has a bookworm of a child who (shock horror) likes listening to her siblings read. I think there's alot more to this family than the edited version we see. I have full respect for a woman who has 19 kids and is still functioning :)

Snap cuddle

I think saying they have 19 children is disingenuous.

They 'only' have 12 dependants.

4 in high school who can surely get themselves to/from school, do their homework/ being fairly independent.

They have 5 primary aged kids though which must be tough on the school run-although mine were walking to's hoop alone by 7 and I'd expect older ones to be able to supervise younger primary kids on the walk to school.

That just leaves one at nursery and 2 under 2s which is prett typical on mn.

So for 6/7 hours a day she 'only '
has 2/3 kids.

As for school book reading my dc's school didn't ask for that at all.

I was curious enough to watch the show after seeing this thread. I'd never heard of them before.

The bit that stood out for me was when the two sets of parents were talking about how they were already thinking about the next baby 5 minutes after a newborn was delivered. That seems so sad to me.

I didn't do 'bad sleepers'

I don't either but unfortunately no one has told my ds.

I don't either but unfortunately no one has told my ds

Same with my DD.

Beeb altogether they do have 19 children!

The Eagle you didn't come across like that at all

Cuddle - yes I know of several families who operate like your family did. I'm sad that you had that experience growing up. I think it's bloody awful to have a large number of children and expect the older ones to care for them regularly.

I have just watched this after reading this.
if I didn't know that the age gap was there with when they had the first... then I wouldn't find anything odd about them. Watching some more other episodes now to see how they are. I do think the mum comes across as maybe not the brightest but she seemed to not be downtrodden. I know he was saying another baby but what's different to that than some women saying just one more and the husband joking saying that's enough.

Just watched it.
Gobsmacked at the SEN/ LD comments tbh!
Sue just seems happy and laid back to me. Yes she's no intellectual but who knows what the future holds when the babies stop?

I think it's pretty clear she would stop now, but it's him. He's the only man I know who had such a successful vasectomy reversal!! He was so angry when she was telling him about the Clairvoyant it really showed a different side to him.
But you could tell he was really struggling with the fact they were all adopted and having huge families. He knows he has issues.

I think very few of their kids will go on to have big families - the telling time will be over the next few years when the babies stop and the grandchildren don't come flooding in and they actually have to deal with a family of older kids.

But I did think the Australian family came off as more selfish with their comments about wanting another one as soon as the baby was born.

I'm from a large family too. Had to parent younger siblings from age 6 onwards. Also had to cook clean and get myself and siblings to school. It was a miserable childhood. There was neglect and poverty, due in part to there being so many of us. It was a difficult childhood. No scrap that, there was no childhood. There was responsibility from a very young age, no form if affection or play unless it was between us siblings. Love my parents but it was just so unfair to have so many kids and to expect children to do so much work. All of us siblings wanted out of the house asap and all of us have considerably smaller families ourselves. I think these parents are selfish to the core. They will feel the after effects in years to come when their kids are filled with anger and resentment.

I'm all for kids chipping in, but in families if this size the older siblings do more than just chipping in and helping out. They end up raising kids, without any choice in the matter. Actually makes me distressed, just as Cuddle said above.

19 offspring, only 12 are children.

Thankfully they haven't had any multiples!

I thought it incredibly sad when one of the older boys said they hoped there wouldn't be any more babies cos they don't have the space.

They have 9 bedrooms and 17 kids at home that's only two to a room and baby in with sue and Noel.

I wonder what would have happened had Chloe not packed in uni and moved back to help out at bakery and home?

The next girl to do the 2nd mother role, if Chloe does ever move on, is Millie who is only 15. And then Katie. All the older teens are now boys.

It's sad that the older girls don't have a choice really - if they're not super smart and going to uni, the choice is either move out (and prob cause conflict with mum and dad who expect labour) or stay there providing labour with the kids.