What do you consider to be a really big family?

[Lori]

This is sort of related to Kristen's post about her encounter with the terrible grocery store woman. I'm surprised somebody would make an sort of family-size comment to somebody with four kids, because I really don't see having four kids as being a notably big family. Larger than average, but not outside the norm to the point that it would get my attention.

I wonder if it's because my mother's best friend has five kids, and we spent a lot of time with them when I was growing up, and they're family definitely seemed big, but not bizarre or anything. ;) So even though I only have one sibling and most people I know only had one or two siblings, I don't consider a family with 4 or 5 kids to be particularly big. I think I'd consider a really big family to be one with 7 or 8 kids, or more.

What would you consider to be a big family? At what point would do you find yourself taking notice and thinking, "Yeah, that's a lot of kids!"?

[Kristen]

I look at more than four as slightly larger than normal, and any more than five as being quite a large family. My aunt has nine, and I think that is an unusually large family. I don't consider my own to be large...four kids seems very normal to me.

Other people seem to be quite shocked that I have four. If I had a penny for every time someone said, "Oh wow! You have your hands full!", or, "I don't know how you do it!", I'd have no need for clipping coupons anymore. :giggle The comments I receive aren't usually negative, but are more from people who are in awe.

I think that I get comments for a couple of reasons. One, I am relatively young, at least to have had four kids, and while I don't think I look young for my age, I also don't think I look old for my age. Also, I always have all the kids with me, since none of them go to school. Most moms in my situation would only be out and about with Sonia and Zoe, because Joshua and Lisey would be in school.

[Beka]

To me I'd say 6+ (kids- not kids and adult) is large.

I have 2 friends with 10 kids, one having her 11th, another having a 10th, 3 with 7 kids, one with eight pg with 9th... so 4 or 5 is "larger" (compared to the city-living average where i am) but definately not large.

I think it depends alot on where you live/where you were raised- where my sister lives 3/4 is large "too many" as 1/2 is average, where i was raised 2 was average so 4/5 was large, where i live now 2/3 is average and 5th onwards gets comments/jokes.

So for me right now with 4 i see us as a larger family as we do have 1 or 2 (some cases 3) more kids than most of my kids peers families do, but I certainly don't see us as large because of the amount of genuine large families I know.

[Jeri]

I consider 4 to be bordering on large, but not really large. I think of 5 as the start of a large family. I know a lot of people who consider 3 to be a large family, which is odd to me because I gre up in a family of three kids, and it never seemed like a lot (and I don't remember getting comments about the size of my family growing up, but that could be because my brother and sister are significantly older than me).

[Jejune]

Jeri, I was going to say the same thing about three - we already get a lot of comments on our "big" family. I've started telling people who ask how many kids I have that I'm up to a billion now. It makes three seem really reasonable. ;)

Personally, 5 plus kids is probably what I'd consider a very big family. It's so rare around here as to be very noteworthy.

[freebiemom]

I have four and consider our family big! I have one friend with five kids and everyone else has two or one. They are blown away by us having four and say they don't know how we do it. I don't either some days but I don't think my life would be so much fun without them! Growing up, I was one of three and some other families had three but most had less while only a few had more. So to me, four kids is where the large families start. :)

[Kristi]

Well I grew up in a family of 6 kids and while it was chaotic at times we always had someone around to talk to or play with. :D

[Kristi]

Didn't finish responding I would say around 7 or 8 or so would be big to me.

[Erika]

Anything from 10 is very large for me. Below that just doesn't seem that bizarre for me. But then again, I am one of 5, my mum is one of 8, my aunt had 8 children as well and 4 certainly seemed to be the norm among my mums sinlings.

[Faith]

I consider 7+ to be large families. My mom is one of 9. Two of my aunts have 6 children and it never seemed too big growing up with them. We have a girl scout family with 7 children and I don't know why but that 1 extra kid seems to add soo much. :giggle

[ColleenC]

I would consider 5 or more a larger family.

[hillsturner]

I think four or more is large. I'm not even sure why. I have three and my husband wanted a few more. I have one brother and he has three brothers and one sister. My parents said we should replace ourselves. That meant two. Where they got that from I'll never know.

[Danielle]

For this generation, I think 5+ kids is large.

[SabrinaJL]

6+ is big to me.

[Shana]

I grew up in a family of 4 kids, so it seems quite manageable and normal to me. If it weren't for my husband being so adamantly opposed, I would consider having a 4th ;)

LARGE to me, would be 6+ children. And, that is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't think that Large Family = Bad. I think that as long as the parents are loving, kind, teach their children to be so and have the resources to care for each of their children, have as many as you want :)

[Desirae]

For me 3-4 kids seems an average family, 5-6 seems like a large family, 7+ seems like "Wow! That's a lot of kids."

[Kate]

Once I scored step-siblings, I was one of 4, and my best friend was one of 5 - so 4-5 to me feels average.

I did however go to school with someone who was one of 13...that seems large to me.

[Christine]

Everyone I knew growing up had one sibling. I had one friend who was one of four and that seemed huge to me when I was in high school!

Now it seems very normal as I know a lot of families with four kids. It's more abnormal for me to find a family with only one or two children. I have a good friend with five and a family at our church with eight.

I guess I react to the family size when it reaches 6?

[tidee]

my gramma had 8 boys and raised one grandson and it makes for a big family. gramma has been gone over 25 years and most of my uncles have passed away, but at the last thanksgiving we still had 50 people there, and most of my family was not. (there i mean) :)

the large extended family was lots and lots of fun growing up. a large family in one house -- i don't know. there were four of us kids in my family, but my little sis was later than the rest of us. i wouldn't consider four to be large, but larger than many families nowadays.

when i was remarried, i had three and she had three, so we had six kids and us. i bought my suburban then to hold 8 people. that was a lot to get somewhere in one trip. and we couldn't stay in one hotel room, either.

[Amy J]

I would say that 5 is a large family, IMO.

[Mary]

I tend to think of a large family as more than four kids. I don't know anyone, personally, right now who has five kids (online acquaintances notwithstanding).

I have run into people who act like three is a lot. :confused Maybe it's because I'm usually by myself when I'm out with all three of them and they think it's 'a lot' for one person to handle. :dunno

[Shasta]

I would say 6 or more, is a large family to me.

[Amber]

I'd consider a family with 6 or more children to be a really big family.

[Cyndi]

I think 6+ would be a really large family. We have four kids, and I consider that big, but not really big.