How large is large?

We have four bio kids,and plan on adopting a sib. group of 2. Right now I consider our family to be average - but we have many acquaintances with 7-9 kids, so we are small in comparison. On the other hand, I work part time,and most of the ladies have 1 or 2 kids,and think I am nuts and tell me they can't stand being home with the 1 or 2 they have ( sad ,isn't it!), when I tell them I also homeschool my 4. They also think I"m a bit crazy for wanting to adopt more! oh well!

It is sad. I hear the "I go crazy with my two" or "I have a hard time dealing with two, I don't know how you deal with 6." Now don't get me wrong I have my "I am slowly going crazy, 1, 2 ,3 ,4, 5, 6 switch" Days, but more often than not We laugh and sing and have a grand ol' time. One thing that does bother me is everyone feeling the need to say something about it. Giving their input. There was one man as we were leaving an apple orchard back in Oct. who said to my dh "Why don't you stop reproducing!" The only reason the man didn't end up flat on his back in the mud is because dh was holding the baby. anyway, I know we all ge the comments, and just deal with them. I know when I go grocery shopping the managers LOVE to see me, and the cashiers HATE it. Oh well, big families have to eat too. SHelley

Yes, why does everyone need to share their opinion? I think we should all start rushing up to people with 2 children and demand to know what they do with all their spare time. We could also ask them if they are SURE they know where babies come from. (They come from social workers...just ask my kids) Once me and the kids were in an elevator with a woman. She went through the normal questions "Do you do day care?" and "Are they all yours?" When I said they were indeed all mine she looked at all the children with disgust and said (for a visual, you must understand that my husband is chinese and I am caucasian. Our bio daughters look more asian, our sons look vaguely hispanic, and none of them look like me. Our 2 youngest daughters are AA) anyway...she looks around and says "How many fathers do they have?!!" I was so angry that I literally couldn't speak....'cause you know what she was implying about me and the kids....So, why would you feel like that was any of your business? I should of asked her who lied and told her she actually looked good in that dress. Okay...whew...I....AM...PERFECTLY....CALM...now. lela

Well we have 9 and hope to add at least 3 more.So I guess we are a large family!:grouphug: I LOVE IT!!!!!We get asked all the time Are they all yours?? ANd the favorite comment is I would go crazy with all those kids! I just laugh and tell them it is all in how you run the home,no it is not crazy around here and no we are not pulling our hair out!We get told "WOW your children are all so well behaved,how do you do it"I just smile when I see people stare I just think they must be admireing my family or they are jealous .:D

good thought. when people are staring at me i always think they are judging me. i'm going to start thinking they are jealous! whats with the "don't you know where babies come from?" obviously I do! so many people have said they are going to buy me a T.V. i should hold out the donation cup. yesterday my dh & I went to target along w/ my youngest ds to buy stocking stuffers. (ds is a baby so dont worry i didnt spoil santa for him, lol!) we also have 3 bdays in dec. so we filled 2 carts. the checkers couldnt stop talking about how much stuff we were buying. then i calmly explained we have 11 children and no this isnt all my christmas shopping. i would need more then 2 carts to buy gifts for 11 kids. we can afford it, we are happy , the kids are happy. why do they care so much. i must have been irritated because i asked my dh to please make her SHUTUP!

Last night I saw a special on TLC - Twins, Twins and More Twins about a blended family who has 13 children. I think between 5 months and 16 years, at the time they finished filming. 6 kids were from the mom's previous marriage, then she and her second husband had 7 kids - 6 of whom were twins. Growing up as a Catholic, I felt we had a small family - only 4 girls. Only the families in pews who had at least 6 kids seemed large to me. BUT 13!!! That immediately made me think of the parents here that have "large families". I really wonder if I could do that. Handle more than 5 kids..... It surely takes a special type of parent. Or maybe that's just life as you know it, so it's routine. THe finances alone of feeding and clothing several children seem so large to me!!! I just cannot stop thinking about that family - I'm in awe.

I meant to watch that show....but I fell asleep directly after she started talking about cooking dinner. I guess you know you have a large family when even WATCHING someone do chores exhausts you. lela

I also think it depends what part of the country you live in. I used to get TONS of comments when we lived in Seattle and had three children. NO ONE has more then 2there so we were a large family. Now I live in Utah and have 6 children but rarely get comments because many people have 4-6 children. You are only considered large when you get to 7+ here. It is soooo nice. Getting comments every where we went in Seattle got very annoying. Now, we just fit in. Kelly

When out at a restaurant with my three daughters, the waitress asked if "these are all yours"!!?! I was quite surprised, as I didn't know that three children was considered an "all". I think it may have been the situation as my husband was working and my parents were with us. I am in my 30's but I look younger than I am, so sometimes people think I'm a very young mom. That was the only way I could make some sense of the comment. Now we're expecting baby #4, so I'm expecting more of these comments as our family continues to grow!

I was watching John & Kate plus 8 last night on TV and my husband & I were talking about the "difficulties" and the way they handle situations with so many little ones. Then we both laughed because we have 7 in our home & 5 days a week I have my 3 grandchildren so we're in the same situation as them! Only difference is we don't have multiples & they aren't all the same age! LOL

Are you adopting more? I was wondering how many kids your state allows you to adopt. Or did you have to get special permission? in my state, we can "only" have 8 minors in the house, but I've heard you can get exceptions if they are siblings of kids you've already adopted. anyone know?

Update: We are now in the process of adopting a sibling group of 3 from foster care ( the sib. group of 2 I posted previously never were placed with us). So that brings us to 4 bios, and 3 hopefully adopted kids,and 1 stepson(not living with us) when he is here, that brings us to 8 kiddos! I am shocked at how the amount of laundry and dishes has increased!! I used to do laundry 3x a week,and now I'm pretty much doing it every day, even with dh and 17yo dd doing her own!

I like to hang out on "Lots of Kids" and "tons of kids" websites and forums to pick up advice for the future. According to them a large family or LOK family is four to five children, and a very large or TOK family is six or more children.

Im alone now, my husband went back to work and I am with my new baby at home all my friends at work or study There is this site do you know it ?[url=http://tinyurl.com/6dw7zhI]TinyURL.com - shorten that long URL into a Tiny URL[/url] registered and wait for you mothers to enter maybe we could arrange a meeting Ruth

We just adopted our third child. I don't really think that 3 children constitutes a "large" family (especially since I always dreamed of having a dozen!), but it seems like I am now in that category! I am praying that DH will agree to one more baby, and then I will believe that we are a large family!