What do you think about parents having unusually large amounts of children? Im talking like 10 plus.

If they have the money and space, why not? More love to go around. I wouldn’t want to be the parents, but that’s me.
I would, however, love to have fifteen siblings.

We got to have someone to pay all those taxes if we’re ever going to geat real healthcare reform!

Could you really give the children the emotional support they need to develop?

If you worked 8 hours a day and slept 8 hours a day that’s 3.5 hours a week you could spend with each of the 16 children. Its less if you figure in bathroom breaks, chores, shopping, driving, etc. You’d loose even more time if the children wanted to participate in any extracurricular activities, any get sick and all the other events that occur in day to day life.

I’ve known people who came from big families, like 8 kids, and there’s not much interaction between the oldest and the youngest.

I think it’s a little over-the-top. Most of these families are religously influenced…be fruitful and multiply and all that. They do seem happy, though. I’d be interested in hearing from some of those children when they are adults to see what their perspective is.

Overall, it’s their choice. If they have the means and this is their wish, then great – have fun. Like ArchaicLion, I would worry about the emotional bonding. I’ve watched the Dugger family (is that the correct spelling?) and see that they are on the “buddy” system…which is ok, it keeps them all interacting, but sometimes, Mom needs to be the buddy…or Dad. I can’t imagine having so many children that I have to assign a buddy. Personally, there is nothing that I have loved more than my time with my children, as they grow up.

Mine are 9 years apart….oh LORD, I’ll NEVER be finished with school! It’s been great and difficult. I was single for my daughter’s youngest years – so she had all my attention. My son, he had my attention, my husband’s and a very loving daughter’s attention – but at times, I felt that she was getting the short end of the stick. If I have problems with two – what would I do with more????

I don’t know, I don’t want to say it’s wrong – I just see so many difficulties that I can’t imagine having that many, myself.

I think it’s wrong and I have no problem saying so. As you already pointed out, there is absolutely no way that the children could experience a close, emotional relationship with the parents. There just isn’t enough time in the day for the parents to spend one-on-one quality time with each of the children.

I also disagree with it because as the other children age, they have no choice but to become parent-like figures for the even younger children, which completely robs them of their own childhood.

Last but not least, another major reason I disagree with it is because of population concerns. If people keep having kids at the rate they are (even 4 per couple), we will, in the very near future, run out of room.

oops…I’m a dork, but very willing to admit my dorkiness…Duggar…not Dugger.

:)

Catholic countries like Ireland and the Phillipines have huge families and they often are very protective of their siblings. In Italy Family and respect are a matter of life and death!

To each his ( and her ) own.

I’m not so certain that they’re really interested in “adequate attention” beyond a certain dose of religion injected at an early age. My belief is that it’s more about a Henry Ford-esque assembly line of New Believers so that they can do their darndest to out-populate the vast number of other people that were either never Christian, or have left Christianity. (This last bit is not idle speculation – I read up on their beliefs.)

While I don’t believe in enacting laws like China that would inhibit people in their childbearing, I think that if people have beyond a certain number of kids (as these people seem set on doing), that they need to be able to support them without government help. (I think this of extra-large families that are not religiously motivated as well.) It’s one thing to have an accidental kid, or to need some help for a little while, but institutional reliance on the System to raise your genetic contribution seems wrong to me.

There was a time when such families were necessary, but I’m willing to bet that they don’t need all those farmhands anymore. Those days are gone, and we all need to be a little smarter about how many of the world’s resources we’re taking up. On the other hand, when you believe that Jesus is on his way back any day now, that all goes out the window – but if that’s true, you shouldn’t need to struggle mightily to outpopulate the rest of the nonbelievers when their time is up, anyway.

I think it’s brainwashing, pure and simple.

It certainly wouldn’t be for me, I know that for sure.

It grosses me out, quite frankly. I don’t think its okay. We’re overpopulated already, and it seems that the people who tend to have that many children aren’t the people with the best genetics.

When do they stop having children? When the woman becomes infertile. My best friends extended family believes the whole be fruitful and multiply thing but they have no money and she has had about eight miscarriages and her doctor told her to stop but she won’t. Isn’t having that many miscarriages about the same thing as having that many abortions when the doctor says you should stop because your body can’t handle it? The reason that people had that many kids back in the day was to have help on farms and such and even the Mennonites where I live have a stable population because they have farm equipment now. I feel many of these religious families do it because they think that their values are so great that they want kids to teach their values to. I know some hippies that do the same thing.

Del! Good to see you…was missing you here : )

Yeah, i’ve been off being distracted and dating instead of being bluntly opinionated on the internet. ;) I’ll try to be back more!!

When you have a huge family you qualify for discounts kinda like Costco.

They taste a lot like chicken according to the Doctor that did my biopsies.

The Duggars of Springdale, Arkansas now have nineteen children and want more. As far as giving them enough attention, this is not a working mom. She is home all day. Because they have a weekly tv reality show, I don’t think they’re strapped for cash, either. They have all the kids learn violin and they’re home-schooled. They do volunteer work in their community and donate blood to the bloodbank. Each Sunday the parents conduct a “Sunday School” class with them. All the little ones have “a buddy.” This is an older (teenage) sibling who dresses it and carries it around.
Yes; it is very odd. I do think they will contribute to society and help to impart solid values even if they’re so-called Christian values.
The Duggar dad and the boys built their large home themselves with occasional help from professionals and are debt-free. They have extra income from storage facilities and books they write about how they manage. The website describes various recipes.

the duggars are mad to have 19 children