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

[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 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.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

+1

I understand your anger PPs but the fact remains adding an extra child is the biggest environmental cost vs everything else flying, driving etc. It’s not all n or nothing and everyone can still do their part trying to conserve resources but acknowledge your impact and try to not make more of those choices as you can.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

+1

I understand your anger PPs but the fact remains adding an extra child is the biggest environmental cost vs everything else flying, driving etc. It’s not all n or nothing and everyone can still do their part trying to conserve resources but acknowledge your impact and try to not make more of those choices as you can.

Ok. But if you take an international plane trip with your family of four once a year and put Italian granite in your kitchen, then that outweighs the environmental impact of a more traditional family having a third child.

So why aren’t you trolling the travel board or the home improvement board?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real talk. 3 is enough. Nobody needs 4 kids these days. Kids don’t die in infancy and early childhood the way they used to.

Eh. Probably some people should have as many kids as they can handle, and some people shouldn’t have kids at all.

That bears no relationship to my comment.

You were discussing number of children, correct?! That poster replied discussing number of kids. Not sure what the heck you mean.
Nobody “needs” any kids. Nobody needs 3...why is that your arbitrary number?

It’s not arbitrary. It’s what OP has and it’s enough.

How do you know? Maybe she is a wonderful parent and should have eight kids. Maybe your kids are the ones who aren’t worth the strain on the environment. How could you possibly know?

I’m not saying she isn’t a good mom. I’m saying there’s no way to justify adding more people when she already ADDED 3! By any metric she has contributed to the human race and can stop now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Real talk. 3 is enough. Nobody needs 4 kids these days. Kids don’t die in infancy and early childhood the way they used to.

Eh. Probably some people should have as many kids as they can handle, and some people shouldn’t have kids at all.

That bears no relationship to my comment.

You were discussing number of children, correct?! That poster replied discussing number of kids. Not sure what the heck you mean.
Nobody “needs” any kids. Nobody needs 3...why is that your arbitrary number?

It’s not arbitrary. It’s what OP has and it’s enough.

How do you know? Maybe she is a wonderful parent and should have eight kids. Maybe your kids are the ones who aren’t worth the strain on the environment. How could you possibly know?

I’m not saying she isn’t a good mom. I’m saying there’s no way to justify adding more people when she already ADDED 3! By any metric she has contributed to the human race and can stop now.

Ugh. Go away.

[Anonymous]

I have 3 (don’t want more!) and I knew a few families with 5, and one with 7. I’ve actually talked to the moms about it and every one of them said after 3 it doesn’t feel any different; like whatever challenge you face at 3 kids doesn’t get “worse” adding a few more. The kids seem pretty happy. It does seem like they all wanted a “large” family, so it might be very different in your case, OP, if you’re opposed to that.

[Anonymous]

My parents came from a cohort of 10. Marriages bring that to nineteen. The next generation (mine) amounted to a cohort of 16, 24 after marriages. The third generation, which is pretty well wrapped up, is standing at fourteen, of which six belong to my husband and I. That boils down to nineteen parents to fourteen grandkids. It all comes out in the wash.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My parents came from a cohort of 10. Marriages bring that to nineteen. The next generation (mine) amounted to a cohort of 16, 24 after marriages. The third generation, which is pretty well wrapped up, is standing at fourteen, of which six belong to my husband and I. That boils down to nineteen parents to fourteen grandkids. It all comes out in the wash.

So two parents have six kids and the rest of the 17 parents have 8?

[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.

It is certainly possibly to raise 3+ kids in a more ecologically responsible manner than most DCUMers raise 1-2. For certain, people all around the world do so and most poor people in the US. I grew up poor in the inner city with a tiny footprint taking public transportation and eating little meat. My oldest walks to work and is a vegetarian.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have a friend with 4, not Jewish or Catholic, another friend with 6 and another friend with 5 (3 birthed, 2 step children)

They all have lots of fun. None of the moms work a traditional 9-5pm. One friend is on public assistance and the she escaped domestic violence from the father. The other two have husbands who are paid very well.

I always enjoy time with them. I get more time to myself as my daughter is more entertained. I grew up in a family of 4. It seems normal to me. I feel so much guilt for only having 1 child.

If I had a partner who wanted a big family, I would have kept on trying to have babies until I physically couldn't.

I don't think anyone is an idiot for a big family. Our world will change and people will be more important than material things. Right now, I would love to have a big family to take some of the pressure off of me and give my kid more people to bounce energy off of. When I had people living with me, my kid really thrived.

Bigger families for the future!! The planet can handle it

Society cannot handle it if there are more ppl like your friend on welfare with multiple kids. Maybe that’s a harsh thing to say but it’s the truth.

+1

Society and the planet. When I see families of 3+ kids, I think how selfish and self centered and narcissistic the parents must be. And no, they don't "enjoy" their kids.

The only thing that's matter of fact is that you do not have 5 kids, and therefore know absolutely nothing of the life of those with 5 kids. You sound like you shouldn't even have 1 kid with that ugly attitude of yours. The planet and society need less people like you.

+1000. People who care that much about the planet should have zero kids. In fact, they should off themselves if they want to be truly unselfish.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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 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.

+1

I understand your anger PPs but the fact remains adding an extra child is the biggest environmental cost vs everything else flying, driving etc. It’s not all n or nothing and everyone can still do their part trying to conserve resources but acknowledge your impact and try to not make more of those choices as you can.

Cite for this fact?

[Anonymous]

I'm one of 5 in 6 years. My mom always said an odd number meant one was often left out. We were pretty feral as it was the 70s and we grew up in a neighborhood where 5 was a smaller family! My parents were definitely free-range so we had a great time but did raise ourselves a fair amount of the time. There were not many after school activities and we didn't participate anyway and we had country property we went to a lot. I can't imagine raising 5 today.

[Anonymous]

I CAN call myself a proud environmentalist and i enjoy having a large family. I birthed one child and we adopted a sibling group of 3 (from Ethiopia). We live in a 2500 sq. ft. house and it seems huge since that is bigger than the house I grew up in as one of 5 kids. I mean, at least now we have 2 bathrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents came from a cohort of 10. Marriages bring that to nineteen. The next generation (mine) amounted to a cohort of 16, 24 after marriages. The third generation, which is pretty well wrapped up, is standing at fourteen, of which six belong to my husband and I. That boils down to nineteen parents to fourteen grandkids. It all comes out in the wash.

So two parents have six kids and the rest of the 17 parents have 8?

From what I am reading, there are 8 married couples with a total of fourteen kids. One of the couples has six kids. We don’t know about the others.

[Anonymous]

It’s a selfish and silly decision. Three is more than enough.

People who aren’t birthing huge families for religious reasons are doing it as some grows rich person pose. “Look how many voracious baby Americans I can afford to house and educate! Tee-hee!”