From The Past: March 15, 2007

I love the shows on The Learning Channel about people with large families. I think the most children I have seen is 16. However, I just watched a show about a lady and her husband who live in the UK, and I think they had 15 kids. The wife doesn’t want to stop until she reaches 20 or her body just won’t let her have any more.

You would think these people are probably on welfare and not paying for anything, but the families I have seen are financially independent. They save and buy everything for themselves. Another family may give them their unwanted clothes, but other than that, they buy for themselves. This is very impressive when you think about it.

Sometimes it’s not the parent’s fault they are on welfare anyway. You would be surprised at the number of people who work 40 hours each week and still get welfare. They are making minimum wage, so they still qualify depending on the number of children they have.

Even though I am fascinated with people who have large families, I would never want that many children myself. I don’t think there is any way to give 16 children individual attention every day. As a matter of fact, all these families have admitted that the older children help with the younger ones. This is a great learning experience until it becomes a “have to” thing. In some cases it looks as though the older children are the mommies. They aren’t getting to do anything that a normal child their age would do because they have to watch over little sister or brother all day, every day.

It is neat to watch, but I would never want to live it. One of my favorite shows is The Waltons. John and Olivia have seven children, plus grandma and grandpa living in the house. This is a wonderful, clean show to watch, but could anyone really pull it off and still be happy?

A friend of mine, who will be 35 in a few months, just gave birth for the second time. She has another child around the age of two. I cannot imagine at 35 just beginning my family. I cannot imagine going through the stage where they need constant attention, baths, potty training, shoe tying, letter recognition, and so much more. I am past that stage as a parent. Granted, I still love sharing those experiences with others. My sister’s children are five years old now and they constantly crack me up, but at the end of the day, they go home. I am not actually raising them, going through kindergarten with them and so on.

This year, Andrew will graduate high school. He will be 18 in a matter of days. Once he moves out, he gets to make his own decisions. For practical purposes, we are finished raising him.

Ashley will start middle school next year. She only has three years of middle school and then four years of high school until she is finished. Raising these kids has been and still is wonderful and fulfilling. I love to watch them as they experience new things, but two is enough for me.