What advice would you give your young adult child if they aspire to raise a large family (to have 4+

[Anonymous]

kids)?

[Anonymous]

Don’t. Unless you can truly afford it.

[Anonymous]

Get a lot of help

[Anonymous]

Stay close to whichever set of grandparents are willing and able to help, or have enough money to hire help.

Have one parent willing to be the “default parent” with the lesser career or stay at home. The logistics of activities and appointments for 4 kids is a lot, even if there are no special needs.

[Anonymous]

That they will need a lot of money, and/or a lot of work flexibility. But that usually work flexibility only comes after a certain amount of hard work put in, which can be difficult for the window of fertility, unless the man is older than the woman, or the woman stays home.

[Anonymous]

One parent must be rich so the other one can stay home + hire lots of quality help. Start young'ish: you need a lot of energy for kids, especially once you go over 2.

[Anonymous]

I would just raise my eyebrows and say really?!?! Tell me more. . . what makes you want to have such a large family? etc. . .

It’s their choice because they are an adult. I would just ask questions that provoked a deeper level of understanding about what that actually will look like.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't say much of anything if they haven't even had their 1st yet. Minds change quickly after that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would just raise my eyebrows and say really?!?! Tell me more. . . what makes you want to have such a large family? etc. . .

It’s their choice because they are an adult. I would just ask questions that provoked a deeper level of understanding about what that actually will look like.

This.

And never, ever ever be the person who told them to have more/less or denied they could make it work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say much of anything if they haven't even had their 1st yet. Minds change quickly after that.

+1

I have 3 younger siblings and chose to be a teacher because I adore kids. As a young adult I thought I wanted at least 3 (or more if financially reasonable). Once I actually experienced pregnancy/postpartum I quickly realized 2 would be the max.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Stay close to whichever set of grandparents are willing and able to help, or have enough money to hire help.

Have one parent willing to be the “default parent” with the lesser career or stay at home. The logistics of activities and appointments for 4 kids is a lot, even if there are no special needs.

I’d tell them not to rely on having grandparent help.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't say much of anything if they haven't even had their 1st yet. Minds change quickly after that.

+1

[Anonymous]

Live near the Duggars

[Anonymous]

None, unless they asked for advice.

[Anonymous]

Tell them they are selfish and willfully clueless because overpopulation is the single most important contributor to environmental collapse. Including that favorite hashtag of GenZ, climate change.

I would also add that they’d not Golden Retrievers so why are they intending to breed as if they were kennel dogs?

Don’t believe me? Try this: what would you say to another adult who told you their plan was to acquire 4-6 Golden Retrievers in the next few years? And thereafter always live in a household with six large dogs? Not as a business but just a home with 4-6 dogs cause you just always wanted a lot of dogs?