The Ultimate Status Symbol? A big Family — Financial Times

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Majority of these families are with strong Christian or Jewish upbringing, so no surprise that they don't abort their babies.

How many of those rich families have remarriages.

Every extra wife usually wants her own baby/babies.

Discarding and replacing spouses and kids doesn't impress me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think focusing on weird outliers like the Ballerina Farms people makes it seem extreme or religious. But I was just telling a friend of mine that it's a flex in the rich neighborhood I grew up in. Four kids, SAHM plus nanny. Moms stay in great shape, house renos, travel, lots of social stuff. This is not people living on a ranch and being tradwives or even particularly religious. It's been a flex for some people for a long time.

+1. And none of them are wearing long dresses while their feed their sourdough starter.

[Anonymous]

It's a flex... for now.

But a LOT of the rich, white, educated families I know of with 4+ kids divorced around the 40-45 range. They procreate and then burn out. Too much stress.

[Anonymous]

Of course it's a status symbol, that's why redditors, DCUMers, et al all seethe when wealthy marry young... whenever they see a huge house ("tacky McMansion!") or gigantic luxury SUV ("they must be in so much debt!").

[Anonymous]

The families I know with lots of children all live in Upper NW, DC and have lots of family money. The moms don’t work, but they have nannies and housekeepers and they all go to Chevy Chase Club.

[Anonymous]

Lot of responses on here from people that must be insanely insecure. Pretty sad. We’ve got 4. We do well but are hardly super rich. Yes one of us is SAM (and works insanely hard, 4 is a lot) and the other works really hard in a career they love, but is also incredibly present. It’s a choice we made. We’re not god-squad, and we don’t have help. And the thought that it’s a social flex is actually sickening. Get the F over yourselves.

[Anonymous]

Regardless of money it seems incredibly stressful to have more than four, no matter how young you are when you start.

I pity those people, think they are only doing it for appearances or attention.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think that certain political interests are trying to make this a trend, and, ultimately, the status quo for all white families.

Agree. I didn't know about this trad wife thing from social but from here.

I assume someone is bankrolling this idea of encouraging white women to have more babies.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Lot of responses on here from people that must be insanely insecure. Pretty sad. We’ve got 4. We do well but are hardly super rich. Yes one of us is SAM (and works insanely hard, 4 is a lot) and the other works really hard in a career they love, but is also incredibly present. It’s a choice we made. We’re not god-squad, and we don’t have help. And the thought that it’s a social flex is actually sickening. Get the F over yourselves.

Then you aren't what we are talking about.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't know any intelligent rich with that many kids. Can you be dumb and rich? Absolutely. Trashy rich

Why does it have to be a flex or trashy and ignorant? Why can't it simply be a choice? I'm one of six children. My extended family is also large and I have maybe 30 cousins just on my mom's side.

My parents weren't dumb or trashy. They prized education above all else, and my dad had a PhD. While we weren't wealthy, my parents sacrificed to give us every advantage and opportunity they could. We were well-traveled, each of us had a car when we turned 16, most of us attended private schools, and all of us attended private colleges.

Throughout my life, I've seen people react to the size of our family. My mother said that people used to tell her "you do know about birth control, right?" As if she were stupid and "trashy." And yet many, many people from smaller families gravitated to us wanting to be part of what they saw as a noisy and fun household. We welcomed so many into our family holidays, and still do. My siblings are the best thing that my parents did for me, because I have a built-in lifelong support system. And research on aging says that's as important as any other health factor in aging.

Because my husband and I started late and had fertility issues, we only have two children. I regret it, but my children are close with all their cousins and have grown up with the benefits of enormous family gatherings, even though we're all scattered throughout the country. As they've contemplated their college and career choices, there's always someone in the extended family that they could call for networking or mentorship.

There are probably valid criticisms to make about the environmental impact of a large family. But it's been interesting to read these last few years about collapsing populations and what that means for supporting an aging population. My mom is getting the last laugh after enduring decades of snide, judgmental remarks.

[Anonymous]

I believe it.

Pretty much all the families we know with 4+ kids are wealthy…OR relatively poor. Families with 4+ kids seem to be almost nonexistent among the middle class and UMC.

Also, nearly all of the wealthy families we know with 4+ kids have significant family $$. Which makes a lot of sense when you think about it. Without the family $, most people are not financially stable enough early in adulthood to even have enough childbearing years remaining to have 4+ kids.

Of course there will always be exceptions, but that is my general observation.

[Anonymous]

People born in the 60s and 70s must have grown up knowing families with 4-6 kids. It wasn’t that unusual.

We have family money, had our first child a couple of years out of college, a normal sized home but I stopped at two. I knew that was the number I could handle. And I hated pregnancy.

My mother had five and I couldn’t do what she did. I seriously doubt too many women are having more than four kids just to show off? Kind of silly.

[Anonymous]

I didn’t have 4 as a flex of wealth. On the other hand, I didn’t worry about the finances and whether we could afford it or not. So I don’t think having that many is a flex but rather the lack of financial limitations.

[Anonymous]

I come from a large family and even if financials aren't an issue, its not what its cracked up to be. I chose to have a smaller family of my own. You do you, don't follow the trends, specially ones set up by billionaires.

[Anonymous]

Are all tgese big billionaire families consist of same two parents or are there multiple partners and step siblings?