<p><a href=“http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/parenting/10/12/sixteen.kids.ap/index.html[/url]”>http://www.cnn.com/2005/HEALTH/parenting/10/12/sixteen.kids.ap/index.html</a> </p>
<p>The whole family is weird. The children are home-schooled, and they all dress alike. The woman is only 39 years old. ::shakes my head::</p>
<p>Another link of interest: <a href=“http://www.jimbob.info/[/url]”>http://www.jimbob.info/</a></p>
<p>The only thing I find “weird” is that they all have names starting with “J” :eek: ;)</p>
<p>Well, the husband plans to run for the State Senate again. Nothing like proof that you’re a good family man…</p>
<p>My dad’s parents had about this number of children, maybe one less. The only difference here is that all of these have lived, thanks, I guess, to modern technology and medicine.</p>
<p>Well, to each his/her own!</p>
<p>What ever makes ya happy.</p>
<p>I guess Josh will be going through the college process this year and will have 3 other siblings in college by the time he is a senior. Will just have to see how it plays out. Some will be envious of their EFC at need based schools.</p>
<p>Since he’s currently building a 7000 square foot house for his family, and there’s no indication from the story that the family has any financial stress, I’m guessing that even with all these kids the EFC will be pretty high.</p>
<p>I have no idea why this is considered national news. There’s a family in our city that has 17 children. To each his own, but I can’t understand why a family that loves children would want that many. You can’t possibly give any of them enough love, attention and guidance. Nevermind the financial aspects. Sixteen college tuitions?</p>
<p>I’m guessing they’ll get significant fin aid.<br>
Is Jinger a name?</p>
<p>I have a friend who was one of eleven children. Interestingly enough, although all are married with families, none of them chose to have more than two children of their own. None of them have fond memories of their childhood in a family of that size.</p>
<p>Eireann, they were probably aiming for “Ginger” with a “J”. But Jinger really comes out with a hard g.</p>
<p>They now have 3 girls named “Janna”, “Joy-ana” and “Johanna”. That should be fun, calling out to one of them. My 3 kids have names that start with different letters, but they consistly claim that they cannot tell who I am calling!!</p>
<p>Chocoholic:
You’re not kidding. We have just two kids, and have a hard time remembering what we’d named each at birth. Seems easier to just call 'em by college name. “Hey, WUSTL - your bedroom is filthy!”</p>
<p>“You can’t possibly give any of them enough love, attention and guidance.”</p>
<p>Maybe you feel you couldn’t give them enough love, attention and guidance, but I think it is not impossible. Just as others know large families who weren’t happy with the number of children, I have a friend from a family of 13 who loved it. It all depends upon the parents. Just as not every only child is a spoiled one, not every large family is full of emotionally deprived children. Both are just stereotypes</p>
<p>If they send all the kids to a private college it could cost over $3,000,000.
Oh wait, how much can they make before financial aid kicks in? Can all the kids go for free? Who pays then?</p>
<p>I’m sure they love children. I love children, too. But I can’t see how they can give individual children much attention. In large families I have known, the older ones end up “parenting” the younger ones our of necessity. I guess I must be WAY overinvested in my two children’s lives…LOL!</p>
<p>Oh I was pronouncing it to rhyme with Ringer. Yeah I think it will get confusing.<br>
My mother was one of 6, 3 boys and 3 girls, and always wanted to have a daughter named Susie and a son named Peter. Somehow they all ended up with different names, but she’d use Susie to call all the boys and Peter to call all the girls. “Susie, Peter, time for dinner” and 6 kids would come.</p>
<p>I remember a “Brady Bunch” family when I was growing up. 10 children from one family and 7 from the other united to form 17. They had two sets of children with the same 1st name.</p>
<p>I don’t know, I am child # 7 out of 10 kids, and there was a lot of love to go around, and plenty of individual attention. It happens because parents make a concerted effort to make it happen. It was probably easier when I was a kid because life was simpler. Kids were not scheduled into a wide variety of things where they had to be shuttled from place to place (more stuff took place locally).</p>
<p>By the time I was 5 my oldest sister was married and the next 2 were off at college. The gap is closer with the last 7 kids and we did not parent one another because my parents did not subcribe to older children parenting the younger children (they were the only parents) so I was not even really bossed around by my older siblings. You defintely learn how to deal with other personalities and know at a young age that you can get more done working collaboratively.</p>
<p>I look back now that both my parents are deceased and I do not know what I would have done with out my siblings (my biggest fear for my only child). They are some of my best friends, they keep me in check and they have my back all of the time and love me unconditionally. When we get together it is big fun laughing at the things we did as kids. </p>
<p>My daughter laughs because when we see each other, she says we act as if we haven’t seen one another in forever. While some of us talk to each other daily but we make sure we all talk to each other once a week she how do we have so much to talk about. I am the only one with an only child the rest have between 2 and 4 kids.</p>
<p>sybbie great post! </p>
<p>I agree with keymom: yes it is challenging to have a bigger family, but I know plenty of kids from one- or two-child families where the kids are spoiled, ignored, delinquent, had miserable childhoods, etc. There can be good or bad parenting no matter how many kids. I think it is rather judgmental and frankly, condescending to make rude remarks about large families. Just as it is rude to make judgmental remarks about people who choose to remain childless, or limit their family to one child. It’s just another way to say “MY way is the right way!”</p>
<p>well I have to say that while I agree with many of the tenets of zero population growth
this family didn’t begin having children until they had been married for 4 years- they seem to be able to support and care for them on their own- what I think is more shocking is the numbers of children who are having babies before they are even through high school.</p>
<p>This is national news because the family has been featured on discovery channel before - the kiddos and I watched the special about a year ago, she went in to have the 1 year old boy. Dad and oldest son were mostly building the house themselves. Mom homeschools those kids! The older ones did do a lot of chores, and the younger ones were quite self-sufficient, but I didn’t get the feeling that the older ones were completely “raising” the younger ones.
It sparked some interesting conversations, my kids were flabbergasted. The house this family is living in is really pretty small, and only had 1 or 2 bathrooms, the organization necessary to get everyone clean, fed and clothed in that small space was amazing.
My husband’s father came from a family of 13 kids, living in a much smaller space, but his sibs were much more spread out than these, I’ve heard him say that there were never more than 8 of the kids living at home at once, and then he was too small to remember.</p>