Does anyone have 5 kids these days? What’s it like raising them

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:People with five kids now are Mormons or catholic idiots.

I’ll e sure to let the atheist and Methodist families with 5 in my neighborhood know!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The families i know with 5 kids are Orthodox Jews or Mormons.

I hope i never hear any woman who has birthed 3 or more kids ever call herself an environmentalist, because I will give her an earful.

I have three kids and consider myself an environmentalist. I didn’t intend to have 3. I got pregnant accidentally and struggled with whether to terminate but couldn’t bring myself to do it. I take public transportation, compost, avoid buying new things (and the third mostly uses hand me downs) and use a lot of vintage stuff to avoid buying new, have electric car for when public transportation is impractical, only eat meat occasionally and try to limit it to local free-range when we do, and donate a lot of money to environmental causes. I’m sorry that isn’t enough for you.
I got sterilized after the third if that makes you feel better.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The families i know with 5 kids are Orthodox Jews or Mormons.

I hope i never hear any woman who has birthed 3 or more kids ever call herself an environmentalist, because I will give her an earful.

You seem like a lovely person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The families i know with 5 kids are Orthodox Jews or Mormons.

I hope i never hear any woman who has birthed 3 or more kids ever call herself an environmentalist, because I will give her an earful.

I have three kids and consider myself an environmentalist. I didn’t intend to have 3. I got pregnant accidentally and struggled with whether to terminate but couldn’t bring myself to do it. I take public transportation, compost, avoid buying new things (and the third mostly uses hand me downs) and use a lot of vintage stuff to avoid buying new, have electric car for when public transportation is impractical, only eat meat occasionally and try to limit it to local free-range when we do, and donate a lot of money to environmental causes. I’m sorry that isn’t enough for you.
I got sterilized after the third if that makes you feel better.

If you were having sex, it wasn't an accident. Just unplanned.

[Anonymous]

I have 6. The first 5 in a row, then the 6th is much younger. At this point, 4 of them are adults. I'm not Mormon, Jewish, Methodist or atheist-if that helps haha.

I worked full time until after 3 was born, then went back after 5 was about 2 years old. The time at home was awesome and I don't regret the financial part of it at all. I'm also glad I was able to get back into my career. Dh is actually in the same career and has been. We don't make DCUM money but we make solid middle class money.

We had a minivan and traveled in that. I'm not local to this board, but in fact one of our favorite trips was camping at Greenbelt and seeing the DC sights! We've been to Disney World, skiing (locally in the NE when we lived there) beaches, ect. We did not travel internationally, although I know big families who have.

I had (and still have to be) organized. Had to make sure everyone had what they needed, ex. 2 needs new shoes, 4 needs posterboard for a project, ect...getting everyone where they needed to go. We also made it a priority to serve in our church and our community. We made it all work though.

In fact, in Feb (thankfully before all the current events ) I had 5 of 6 here and they were talking about their fun memories of our crazy lives. I was raised with just one sibling so it's neat to hear their views. The little one listened in amazement, since her life is so different being so much younger.

It's totally doable OP and not to be feared! I've long since tuned out negative comments from people both IRL and online. My adult kids are all contributing to better our world and have turned out well.

[Anonymous]

PP here-I meant to say, as far as outside help-for a couple of years when I had kids still in elementary school, dh and I had to leave for work before the bus came. My mom (who hadn't retired yet) didn't go in to work until later so she would come over and stay an hour until it came. The kids loved that time with her.

After school, the olders got home first, so they were there when the youngers got there and then Dh and I arrived shortly thereafter.

[Anonymous]

I have a friend with 6 who is a local elected official. She’s Greek and her husband is Russian IIRC. Pretty sure they aren’t Catholic or whatever. Just from cultures where big families are more normal.

Another family I know that has 6 are more of the fundy persuasion. They used to attend that McLean Bible Church before they moved to the Midwest. All their kids have biblical names. On the plus side, they were super nice and never tried to convert us or anything when we were neighbors.

[Anonymous]

Nancy Pelosi has 5 kids

[Anonymous]

We have five, three in college now, two still at home (teens). I stopped working after first was born and went back part time after youngest was in 1st grade. I’ve loved raising a big family. There is definitely stress but I don’t notice more than others. We did private schools for elementary and public high school. I wouldn’t let the idea of twins stop you from having another child. We do have twins and they are terrific!

[Anonymous]

You can travel internationally with a big family, you just have to prioritize it and take turns. We have five. Husband and I take turns taking one or two overseas. We alternate with domestic driving vacations for the whole family, usually a mountain cabin or beach VRBO.

[Anonymous]

Regarding international travel: This is important to us; we are teachers. We have (only) 3 kids and we either get a family room in a hostel or camping cabins just outside of whatever city we are visiting. (An advantage to this is there is usually a pool at the campgrounds.) We have met families from all over the world doing the same thing and we are in regular touch with several of them. Our kids don't know much about hotel rooms, lol.

Other larger families we know get a Winnegabo for US or other travel.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend with 6 who is a local elected official. She’s Greek and her husband is Russian IIRC. Pretty sure they aren’t Catholic or whatever. Just from cultures where big families are more normal.

Another family I know that has 6 are more of the fundy persuasion. They used to attend that McLean Bible Church before they moved to the Midwest. All their kids have biblical names. On the plus side, they were super nice and never tried to convert us or anything when we were neighbors.

Then they are Eastern Orthodox.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The families i know with 5 kids are Orthodox Jews or Mormons.

I hope i never hear any woman who has birthed 3 or more kids ever call herself an environmentalist, because I will give her an earful.

You seem like a lovely person.

LOL! Doesn’t she? She’s and environmentalist who treats humans like crap. That’s very sanctimonious of you pp.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend with 6 who is a local elected official. She’s Greek and her husband is Russian IIRC. Pretty sure they aren’t Catholic or whatever. Just from cultures where big families are more normal.

Another family I know that has 6 are more of the fundy persuasion. They used to attend that McLean Bible Church before they moved to the Midwest. All their kids have biblical names. On the plus side, they were super nice and never tried to convert us or anything when we were neighbors.

A typical family size in Russia is one or two kids. Large families are quite uncommon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The families i know with 5 kids are Orthodox Jews or Mormons.

I hope i never hear any woman who has birthed 3 or more kids ever call herself an environmentalist, because I will give her an earful.

I hope to never hear anyone with 2 kids who regularly takes them on plane trips call herself an environmentalist because I will give her an earful.
I hope to never hear anyone with one child who is being driven to a separate activity everyday in a different part of the city call herself an environmentalist because I will give her an earful.
I hope to never hear anyone with no kids who spends all their money on travel but doesn't have solar panels call themselves an environmentalist because I will give them an earful.