My husband and I have three children, but I feel so strongly inside that I want an enormous sized family. I just feel like being a mom is my calling. I don't care if they are my biological children or adopted children, I just want to be surrounded by children for as long as possible. My husband and I would love to have more, but finances really tend to bring us down. Everyone tells us we should not have more children because of the expense factor. To be quite honest things are a bit tight now so I sometimes think maybe they are right. I stay at home and homeschool so my husband is the only one bringing in money.

I guess my question is, is it possible to have a large family on a simple income? And anything else you can tell me it. Do you have to have an enormous house? How do you work the transportation issues?

My mom is the oldest of nine and she absolutely hated it, so I'm scared my kids will react the same way, but I just can't get over the image of a house full of kids all helping to prepare dinner and just being together as a large family. :heart:

Tell me everything you know, good and bad.:)

:heart:

I have 5 kids, so we do not have an enormous family, but we do have a big one. I do not think money should factor into whether or not you have a child, provided you can provide the basic necessities of life. I am a SAHM and have been since I was 5 months pregnant with our oldest (he is 9). My dh makes a good living, but even so, we do budget and really try to stick to it and live beneath our means...not only to be able to save money, but as an example to our kids.

As far as house and transportation go, I don't think you need an enormous house. Our house is about 2400 sq. feet, so it is fairly large (IMO), but if needed we could get by with less space. Transportation wise, we have 2 vehicles...dh takes his to work and I have mine to do whatever running around I need to. Typically, though, I don't do much errand running or whatever during the week. I either have dh pick stuff up on his way home from work or we go on the weekend when we are already in town for church or something else (we live in a small town about 10 miles outside of a larger community).

HTH!

:butterfly

We have 8 children, which I don't consider enormous . . . I came home for good while pg with #3.

My dh is an LPN, so you can figure out our rough income without my getting specific. We live in a 1780-something square foot home, so NO, not big house. Well, a huge house in comparison with much of the world, so I feel very blessed.

My children honestly love it. They comment all of the time on how glad they are to be in a big family, how lucky they feel, etc (well, the ones old enough to notice).

I do know many people on both sides, who grew up in big families - about half and half in my experience, those who loved it and those who hated it. I notice it is often females who were older daughters who hated it, felt they sacrificed their childhood in work. We've made a real effort to avoid some of those pitfalls here without raising spoiled children - I read somewhere a piece of great advice: "give the job to the youngest child capable of doing it".

They *do* all work together beautifully - just this evening I walked in on my two youngest dds, 5 and 7, cleaning the bedroom the four girls share "to surprise Clara and Sophia" (their big sisters). At that moment, Sophia was teaching Clara how to cook something that Clara had never tried, and my 15 y/o ds was cooking dinner for the two little girls (who eat separately due to their severe food allergies). The 9 y/o ds was playing with the baby. So yes, that vision of yours of the whole family getting dinner to the table . . .

And transportation, we do have a 15 seater van in addition to dh's 15 year old commuter car.

We have four kids so far. I love having them. I love the baby stage. I think you can budget well and get by on less. I've wondered how my kids will feel about their sibs when they're all grown (like, did they feel like they didn't have enough attention or something). I can't imagine what it will be like to move on from this stage of life (having babies) to being "done". It just sounds so final.

I guess my question is, is it possible to have a large family on a simple income?

I think it is. Both sides of my family (my Mom and my Dad) were very much a modest income family and large (10 and 8 kids, respectively). There are certain sacrifices, but so many benefits that it makes it worthwhile, IMO.

Do you have to have an enormous house?
My grandma still lives in the house she raised her 8 kids in - it has two "true" bedrooms. They had a built-on back porch that became a bedroom over time, and she had her bedroom in the dining room at one point. Wiht sets of bunk beds or trundles, it can work.

How do you work the transportation issues?


We have an 8 seater minivan. One of the biggest issues I have with family size is safe transportation. I worry about rollover risk and side impact/curtain airbags. We did look at Dodge Sprinters, which come in passenger styles as well, but they were 40K. I hope that multi-seat vehicles someday step up to the plate with safety issues.

Thanks guys!

Wow two bedrooms for 8 kids :-O, I guess it definitely can be done. I'd love to hear more especially from those with 8 and 9 kids, which is the range I would love to be in some day. I'm so glad it's possible.

I guess I'll jump in here too :)

is it possible to have a large family on a simple income?

Yes it is possible, not "normal" but totally possible. My dh works in customer sevice, so a very modest income. I have been a birth and postpartum doula for 10 years but only take 1-2 clients a year and usually I don't charge a fee so I do not add to our income on a regular basis. We have a VERY tight budget and honestly, I wouldn't change a thing. It is rather freeing not to be a slave to bills and temptation to spend poorly.


Do you have to have an enormous house?

Not at all. We rent a 1700 sq ft townhouse/duplex. It is on about an acre down a dead end street so it does allow the kids tons fo outside play space. Inside, we have 3 bedrooms but use one as our school/playroom. So that leaves the 4 big girls in bunks in one room and the 2 littles in toddler beds in our large walk through closet. Yes, we are creative ;) We will be making a set of bunkbeds that fit toddler matresses soon. I'll try to remember to post a pic of that when they are done.

How do you work the transportation issues?

We have a 12 passenger van and dh uses a car his dad lets him borrow for commuting.

That was one of the biggest things I feared, bedroom space. The rest of our house seems large enough it's just the tiny bedrooms. I should ask my grandma where she kept all of her kids.

We have 6 and when our income was smaller I felt incredibly guilty not to be able to have those extras like dance, gymnastics, football, for them. My children love being part of a large family but they also like having their own separate opportunities to shine. All that said, I don't think you HAVE to have money to raise a large family.