What a difference a generation makes

[Connonym]

Today my 11 year old expressed shock that one of my friends has 3 kids. She doesn't know anyone else who has more than 2 kids in their family and her mind is boggled. I was a good mom and I didn't laugh at that but I did think about how many families I knew with 5+ when I was a kid.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. thats a cute story, my mother was an only child

and she said she felt very isolated, because she was the only only child in her class.

[Lisa]

21. I know -- even as recently as the 1970s, there weren't many of us ...

I think there was one other only in my class, around the Watergate era. Now, most of my friends and family have 1 or 2 kids (and are probably not going to have any more, since they are in their 30s and 40s).

Both my parents came from families with 6+ kids (and in both cases, one didn't make it to adulthood).

[skygazer]

2. Don't show her a picture of the Duggars

You'll have to perform CPR on the poor kid.

[RetroLounge]

3. My parents had 3 kids in the 60's

Most of our neighbors had 2 or 3.

But my friend's parents (the neighborhood catholics) had 7. THAT was unusual...

RL

[Connonym]

4. Yeah I did go to Catholic school so that have distorted my perception

I think the biggest family I personally knew had 9 kids. In a 3 bedroom 1 bath house. I cannot even imagine.

[skygazer]

5. I didn't grow up with a lot of Catholics

But I did grow up with farm families. And most of them had at least 4 kids. I'm one of 6. The people on the farm up the road had 9, I think. Our other neighbors had 4. The farm down the road had 6.

Always better when you don't have to pay the help.

[Crazy Dave]

15. My wife's side of the family were farmers

Her grandmother, now deceased, was an amazing woman with equally amazing stories about farming during the depression, had 18 kids, one of them her mother.

[ikojo]

20. My uncle Mike's partner comes from a family of

22...ONE father and two mothers. He's the youngest.

[RetroLounge]

6. My 2 kids screamed and cried because they didn't have their own rooms

and now they refuse to sleep in them alone...

So they sleep on the floor of the livingroom together.

Well, lets be clear. They do that every other night. I make them sleep in their beds in their room at my house.

RL

[La Lioness Priyanka]

9. when my parents were getting divorced, my brother clung to me all the time.

[mopinko]

7. i have 5

i only know one family whose kids are now kids, that have more than me. and people act like i invented teevee or something when i tell them i have 5. almost always- oh wow.
but i was the 6th of seven, the biggest family in my school was 14, the biggest family in the neighborhood was 10. i have the most in my family, 2 older sisters have 4, everyone else has 2.
yup, big changes in one generation.

[Joe Fields]

8. nine people in my family....and not that unusual for back then.

[WritingIsMyReligion]

10. I'm an only, and most of my friends now only have 1 or 2 siblings.

A family with more than 3, maybe 4 kids is pretty damn rare nowadays, at least around here.

That said, my mom had two friends growing up in mid-60s, early 70s who were sisters in a brood of 11. :wow: I mean, :wtf: Can you imagine being pregnant all the fucking time like that?

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

11. Even though I am in my 50's

I am surprised by reactions of peeople when I mention I come from a family of 10. :) I had no other reference point and small families seem just as odd to me as I'm sure my family seems to others!

[WritingIsMyReligion]

12. What do you do with all those siblings?

:P

You must have had like negative personal space. AHHHHHHHHHH!

:hi:

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

13. Perhaps the idea

of personal space is also a new concept! :) It was most noticeable to me after coming home from the service. Wow! Too many people here :)
When we have family parties we are never faced with the 'what do I do with this leftover food?', 'cause there isn't any!

[WritingIsMyReligion]

14. Hahaha, that's very true.

:)

Being an only with professional parents, I can go an entire day without talking to a soul--a weekend where parents are out all day, or like right now, during the summer. It's amazing. Plus I've never had to share...well, anything, besides what's common in the house, such as TV, etc., and those things only with my parents. College is going to be rough at first--other people? WTF? :P

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

16. Another area

where having a large family is good is during times of crisis or problems. Of course it helps that we all moslty get along well. Not any grudges or fights that I'm aware of.
It's nice to have a large support network.
My father comes from a large family also. My mom didn't but she adapted! It was quite scary to my ex when she first met everyone. It was like meeing everyone in a neighborhood she said, and they were all family!

[Connonym]

17. pardon me for laughing

but you have to admit that most people would find the service to be lacking personal space. It's kind of funny that you noticed it when you got home :)

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

18. Well that's 'cause

by the time I got out I had a private room....... :)

[ikojo]

19. Well, in the orthodox community of my neighborhood

most people have as many kids as possible.

But you are correct...most families are small these days and I think that's a good thing.

I had no kids nor any desire to have them. I figured my mom and dad had more than necessary (they had six and my mom had one kid from a previous relationship) so they made up for my zero kids. My now deceased younger brother never had nor wanted kids either.

[Nikia]

22. In both rural Ohio and Wisconsin

There are still several families with 3+ children. Some of them have the same parents where others involve multiple parents.