<p>[How</a> I made sure all 12 of my kids could pay for college themselves ? Quartz](<a href=“How I made sure all 12 of my kids could pay for college themselves”>How I made sure all 12 of my kids could pay for college themselves)!</p>
<p>I am a failure as a parent.</p>
<p>Just about nothing on this list sounds appealing. </p>
<p>I’d have gone absolutely bonkers in this household.</p>
<p>Oh and I still “paid” for college myself ;)</p>
<p>Btw, I must really be missing it, but I see <em>nothing</em> about how the kids paid for college themselves…</p>
<p>Even the Romneys look more diverse.
;)</p>
<p>Hm. I’m skeptical. But in case this is a reliable story, this is what the article has to say about the children paying for their own educations:
</p>
<p>Damned impressive if the kids are paying for their educations by buying rental units and using equity to grow wealth, considering that many adults are hard-pressed to do those things …</p>
<p>What does this list have to do with the kids being able to pay for college?
(The article in general, not Frazzled1’s post)</p>
<p>I’m just picturing the poor wife stuck in a tent, pregnant, with 3 kids in diapers while her husband took off for 3-5 days with any kid who would have been old enough to help. Sounds like a fun vacation!</p>
<p>I have an immediate negative reaction to large families. I’m more lenient with adopted/foster families. It is a flaw, but it is what it is. The households always seem to be run like businesses/factories. There is just nothing, absolutely nothing, about that lifestyle that appeals to me. </p>
<p>Different strokes for different folks.</p>
<p>There are a few things I noted. First, unless it’s just not mentioned all kids must be neurotypical, and if so lucky them. You can’t shove a square peg in a round hole no matter how hard you try. Families that tout the magic formula that never raised a kid that was out of the box in any way I have a hard time taking seriously. Their frame of reference is very limited. They had study time from 6-8pm, but also demanded sports participation. With today’s schedule I don’t know any school sport or activity (debate, robotics, MUN, etc) that wouldn’t run into those hours occasionally. The inflexibility just doesn’t ring true for today’s families. The idea that a parent can go to the school and simply ‘demand’ their child be placed in any AP is also questionable. Sometimes this works if your student is very gifted. However the idea that the parent will ensure success just wouldn’t move most administrators to place a solid B student in Calc BC. The long explanation about his non picky eaters is followed by a mention that his kids have no food allergies. Really? And this has what connection with making them eat their broccoli first and a varied diet? He’s now an expert on medicine and allergies? The not paying for college, and certainly weddings, is a family choice. No parent has to do this. He doesn’t come out and say how they did this. Merit monies? Through investments (this seemed to be insinuated either for college or first homes, wasn’t clear). If so, where did the seed money come from? There’s no doubt the parents had very specific ideas. There’s also no doubt these kids had many advantages and supports that he’s glossing over.</p>
<p>I don’t think I would have liked to have been a kid in this family.</p>
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<p>I think I would have HATED being a child in this family :)</p>
<p>(and I still want to know how they all paid for college)</p>
<p>Sounds like this guy is looking back with rose colored glasses. It is amazing how they made those darn kids toe the line! Such “perfect parents”!</p>
<p>This line was especially disturbing:
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<p>Who does that? What’s the point?</p>
<p>I’m sure this wasn’t their intention, lime, but to me that is such a power move. </p>
<p>Even adults have their own food preferences. As long as a child is getting a balanced meal, the whole forcing kids to eat something they don’t like has never made sense to me. For example, I hate pomegranate. Both of my parents LOVE it and started feeding it to me when I was really little. Even hated it then. I still try it every few months with the hopes that my tastes have changed. Nope. Still hate it.</p>
<p>Again, to me, it sounds like a business/factory. Very little room for individuality (oh goody, they get to PICK which sport they’re forced to play).</p>
<p>Personally, a couple who made the choice to give birth to 12 children, had better be rolling in money to support them, Imo.
My kids will adopt if they decide to have kids.
We need to improve how we care for the people & animals that are here, before we disappear.</p>
<p>I don’t understand the mindset, implied in this article, that parents whose children pay for their own college educations have somehow raised those children more successfully. One size does not fit all, and I’m sure there are excellent reasons for certain kids to pay for their own schooling - family difficulties prevented any planning for college; kid wasn’t ready for college after high school, or got off to a rocky start on the first try, etc. When I read about a kid who paid for college him- or herself, I’m impressed - in part because it’s such a rare feat in today’s expensive world. </p>
<p>But we never considered the possibility that we **wouldn’t ** give our kids a good college education. We sacrificed for it willingly and are proud that we did. I don’t think of a college education as an indulgence, or something that our spoiled children expected as a handout. I saw it as part of our obligation as parents. So it’s hard for me to get too excited about parents who brag that they don’t pay for college, if they’ve got the money. What are they doing with it instead?</p>
<h1>3–Nothing wrong with being white–just sayin’. Each person is a unique individual. :)</h1>
<p>H and I come from big families and have a big family ourselves (not THAT big, only 7 kids).
I can’t get my 18yo to rinse the dishes so they’ll come clean in the dishwasher. Forget getting a 3 or 4yo to scrub a toilet or an 8yo to do laundry. I could use more of the “boot camp” attitude, but I’m not all that organized or energetic myself, and we have very few rules in our house. I probably wouldn’t like this family’s lifestyle, but the parents have given their kids lots of opportunities for hands-on learning, and I admire them for that.
Although he never says exactly how the kids paid for their own college educations, the dad admits they benefited from his knowledge, training, connections and introductions in the business world. That seems like a huge plus. My parents didn’t pay for us to go to college–because they didn’t have the $, not because they wanted to teach us independence. A couple of us took out loans, some had big scholarships, two used ROTC, and all of us worked and saved during high school, summers, and worked during college terms. One had to take time off a couple times to save money to pay for the next year. In a big family, there will be a variety of paths. But this (students putting themselves through college) was certainly more doable a couple decades ago than it is today…</p>
<p>It is more difficult when you are dealing with special-needs kids. (H and I both have severely handicapped brothers. The families we grew up in were very different because of this). </p>
<p>I’m sorry that some people react negatively to big families. I don’t think that people should have more kids than they can afford and care for properly. We take care of our kids, and pay their way. Even college. I feel that we can afford to do this for our kids (unlike our parents) and we should.
All big families are different. OURs is not at all the “factory” style. We are more the “hippie style.” I also do not like controlling food. Our house has no food rules and no bedtime rules. Everyone eats whatever they want, when they want. And goes to bed when they want. Unimaginable to some, but it worked for us. My twin has 6 kids. She and her H have a lot of rules in general–and especially about food. Every meal is a battle of enforcing rules–clean your plate, this kid can’t have dessert, he didn’t drink his milk, etc. Not at all my style.</p>
<p>Our kids like many foods, as do I, but we STILL have allergies. The folks in the article are VERY fortunate to have blessed with healthy kids. When your kids have health issues but are forced to toe the arbitrary lines in the sand, like breakfast at 5:15am every morning, that would never hard worked in our household and would have made my kids even sicker than they were.</p>
<p>Food health allergies are NOT the fault of parents or “picky” eating. Babies are BORN with allergies–some anaphylactic. Childrearing that fails to recognize this can be very dangerous for all involved.</p>
<p>I carry an epi-pen and know how to use it. Some kids are so sensitive that even if a drop of milk spills on them, it can trigger an anaphylactic reaction. That is a genetic issue, NOTHING to do with food preferences.</p>
<p>Only one of our friends has a kid who is paying his own way through college. He started at local flagship U but decided he wanted to move to OR and get a job instead. He did with family’s blessing. He has been working multiple jobs and now is considered an OR resident and taking some CC courses and hopes to work his way up to courses at the local U. It is a lot more expensive to pay one’s own way, with or without merit aid than it was back decades ago when many of us attended school. We thought our S did great to get a renewable 1/2 tuition merit award and were happy to pay the rest.</p>
<p>My guess is that a family of 14 on a single salary qualified for a whole lot of FA.</p>
<p>Even beyond the allergy issue, they are blessed in that none of their children had Crohn’s, UC, IBS, etc that affected their ability to eat a “typical” diet. </p>
<p>I do not like the implication that diet causes allergies. </p>
<p>The whole article just seems very smug.</p>
<p>LOL at this statement alone:</p>
<p>“We all ate dinner and breakfast together. Breakfast was at 5:15am and then the children had to do chores before school. Dinner was at 5:30pm.”</p>
<p>Just not a normal existence. What corporate executive father is home at 5:30pm? Please explain how you get teenagers up and eating breakfast at 5:15am?</p>
<p>Yeah…I’m a failure as a parent</p>
<p>Going down to the school and demanding that their kids be let into every single AP class. They sound charming.</p>