How many children do you consider to be a large family?

[LaMere Academy]

Just curious. I sometimes refer to our family as being large, then think "well it's really not that big at all."

Wondering what others think.

[Holly IN]

I say 4 children and up. However alot of people see us with 3 kiids and say "whoa...3 kids....you have your hands full". Ha ha ha

 

I put down 3 because hotels think we are a large family where you can't book a room for family of 5. :glare:

 

Holly

[BMW]

Considering that a whole lot of families have just 1 child, maybe 2, yours might be large... comparatively...

 

I heard a dad once say, "We have 5... it's not a record, but it's not a hobby, either!!"

 

I tend to think of large families as 5 or more... and when you get past 8, well, it's a really big family!

 

Bee

[Jami]

I think of 5 as the dividing line between medium and large. Probably because we're adding our 4th and I don't think of us as a large family. But after 4 I can see how a few things (cars, restaurants, bedrooms) can get a little trickier to manage. My sister is about to have her 6th and I certainly think of her family as large compared with mine!

 

Jami

[Mom to Aly]

I grew up with 4 kids in our fam, and that was what I always wanted, so I have always thought more than that was large. Now I am happy with just my one, though :)

[GailV]

I grew up with 4 kids in our fam, and that was what I always wanted, so I have always thought more than that was large.

 

I grew up with 4 kids in the family, too, and thought that was normal. And many of our friends have families that size. So 5 kids and up seems large to me.

[Trivium Academy]

If a child cannot hold their parent's hand, then I consider that to be a large family. I also consider us to be a small family with only 2 children and I consider 3-4 children average. This is not based on any statistics just my own logic, :lol: .

[runningirl71]

I said 4 and up as large. But, we did live in Asia for almost a decade and anything over two is considered large! :)

[Melissa B]

I sort of see seven as the dividing line. We talk about maybe having six some day, but to have more than six would require things like a special vehicle (most standard vehicles don't seat more than eight) special seating arrangements when you go out for dinner (around here there are tables and booths for six-eight or you can push two tables together, but at nine it becomes "party seating") and even our boat has an eight person seating maximum. Seems arbitrary, but for us four to six seems comfortable and seven or more seems large. :) But my dh and I both come from families where 3-4 is standard, so it is probably a question of what you are used to.

[Rosy]

I think of 6+ as large. 4 seems normal to me. I think when you can't fit the family in a mini-van, you have a big family. :D

[cathmom]

I grew up with 4 kids in our fam, and that was what I always wanted, so I have always thought more than that was large. Now I am happy with just my one, though :)

 

 

Exactly what I would have posted, except I have seven! :lol:

 

I did have an only for 6 1/2 years though!

[JumpedIntoTheDeepEndFirst]

I think of 2 or 3 as normal sized, 4 & 5 are large but I don't stop and stare until 6 kids. Not that I have a problem with large families but I am pretty sure that 6 or more would probably break me ;)

[Annie Laurie]

I voted 6 or more is large.

[mommaduck]

You needed an other...because I don't consider 6 large. 10, 14, 18...those are large ;)

[Carrie12345]

I put 4, even though my own family doesn't feel especially large. 3 is the traditional number in our family, though. I'm one of 3, my mother is one of 3, my father is one of 3, and my aunt has 3. 4 may not feel big, but it's "abnormal" in my circles.

[beansprouts]

I think 1-2 kids is small, 3-5 is moderate, and 6 or more is a large family because then you graduate from the minivan to the BIG van:lol:

[Momto5]

I agree with the comments that you're large once you can't fit in a standard vehicle. :iagree: By this I mean large is more than 6.

 

I just bought the 8 passenger Honda Odyssey because although we only have 5 kids, it was difficult for the teenager to fit between the 2 carseats in the back of the van.

[Crissy]

I chose six or more, but only because you didn't have "other". :D

 

Actually, my first thought when I read the question was, "More than six."

[Jill- OK]

Just curious. I sometimes refer to our family as being large, then think "well it's really not that big at all."

Wondering what others think.

 

...referred to our family as 'big' when we had four kids, but I didn't really consider us in those terms until five kids.

 

Four kids is when you don't fit in an average car anymore, lol, so I think that's some sort of dividing line. ;-)

[cathmom]

we have seven dc but still drive a minivan! Oldest ds went away to college at an opportune time!

[~Tara~]

I used to think 4 was large-ish. 5 and up were large. But once I had 5, shoot, even when I had 4, that didn't seem so 'large'. More like...normal.

I would still say though that 6+ is 'large' though it doesn't *feel* large to me. Big, sure, but not "large" if that makes any sense LOL

[camibami]

I think of 1-2 as small, 3-5 as medium, 6+ as large, but only 10+ as really big. I often take the neighbor kids places with us, and then I have 5. You just wouldn't believe all the stares and comments we get- and its only 5! Its like I grew an extra head!

 

So I feel for you all with 5+, because apparently its a freak show for most!

 

(I like to think the comments are because I'm so youthful looking and cute, but...I don't think so!:D)

[RebeccaC]

I was the oldest of 8 and my father's mother and her twin were the last of 22.

 

I don't look at the number as being large or small so much as I look at the ability of the mother and father to cope/parent the number they have been given. I have seen folks with one child who in my opinion had family that was too large due mostly to the physical abuse and neglect happening just before the child was taken by the state. I have seen folks with 9 kids who I viewed had just the right amount.

 

All of that written I think that a large segment of our society sees a family with more than 2 kids as a large family.

[iquilt]

When I was expecting #3 I discovered that a lot of people think our family is large because we went beyond the "standard 2" clause. I tend to think large refers to a family that cannot fit into a minivan :)

[Plaid Dad]

Actually, my first thought when I read the question was, "More than six."

 

:iagree:

[Laura Corin]

Just curious. I sometimes refer to our family as being large, then think "well it's really not that big at all."

Wondering what others think.

 

A big family is one larger than that of your childhood. For me that's four, for him that's three.

 

Laura

[Greta]

As the Mom of only one child, anything more than two seems big to me!!! :D I have two siblings, and I always felt like ours was a "big" family simply because all of my cousins and practically everyone else I knew were two-child families. But my mom had seven siblings, so she thought our family pretty small. It's all a matter of perspective. :)

[Sparkle]

I said 6 or more. I would consider 6 large but not unusually so. I'd say 8 seems more like a large family to me, where I would really think that was a lot of kids.

[Quiver0f10]

I think 6 was the turning point for us from feeling small to feeling large.

[amyable]

I used to think 4 was large-ish. 5 and up were large. But once I had 5, shoot, even when I had 4, that didn't seem so 'large'. More like...normal.

I would still say though that 6+ is 'large' though it doesn't *feel* large to me. Big, sure, but not "large" if that makes any sense LOL

 

:iagree:

 

When I had 2 under 3 years old, I thought four kids was a large family (one that probably would have put me in the looney bin :lol:). Lo and behold, now that those first two got older and we added three more, 5 doesn't seem so big! Six is pushing big IMHO... I start to think 7-10 is "large".

[chaik76]

I said five (or more). I think in today's society 2 is considered average, and three large...but for me, five is when it starts to seem large (even though that's how many kids I want).

[frogpond1]

the large families think we're small. That is my experience in homeschool groups. It is either 1-2 kids in one camp with maybe 3, or camps with 6 or more kids.

[kidsnbooks8]

I voted 5 or more. I guess because most families have between 1 and 4 so when I see someone with 5 or more, I think that seems like a large family to me.

[Sophia]

Dh and I both came from families of four so we consider that normal.

Of course, my 12 y.o. is truly puzzled when people ask her what it's like to be from a family of 8 as she considers 6 children to be normal :D

[love2read]

For me personally, it was with the 4th child because I was one of three. At that time another mother told me that a large family starts at 5. She was very sure of that, so it must be true ;) Because there are so many around here with 10 and 12 kids I tend to think that large starts with 8.

[tricia]

We have 12 right now. And when we are out and about 'without' our crew and I see other families with like 5 or 6 or so I am like...Look at all those kids!! To me, even though we have twice that---to stand back and look at it on someone else it seems big. To me though, my own 12 doesn't seem that big but I know it must look that way just because so many less look big. Make sense? But even 4 is a lot to. I think mostly because if there are 4 then they are most likely to be little and 4 little kids is a handful!!

 

Tricia

http://www.mommyx12.blogspot.com

[swellmomma]

according to my extended family I have a large family, most of them only had/have 2 kids with the exception of my mother who had 3. FOr me to already have 4 is considered huge. IMO though we are a small family, especially when we are around certain families from church that have between 9 and 14 kids in them. More and more of my friends are either expecting their 4th or just had their 4th so it is becoming the new "normal" kwim

[swellmomma]

www.mommyx12.blogstpot.com

 

 

Hey heads up, I went to the blog you had listed and it goes to a blog for growing/using marijauna. YOu have an extra t in your addy, I took it out and got to your real blog, but you might want to fix it.

[dragons in the flower bed]

Just curious. I sometimes refer to our family as being large, then think "well it's really not that big at all."

Wondering what others think.

 

I have the same experience.

 

I don't feel that I have many children, but almost everyone else seems to think so. My dad pointed out to me that it's unusual for folks to have more than two.

 

Sometimes when all five kids are together, and the oldest's fiance, too, it occurs to me that our family is a very nice size. But with just three running around the house most days, I often feel it's too small. I don't want more babies, but I'd take a bunch more eight to sixteen year olds if they came with as much extra grocery money as we'd need. :D

[dragons in the flower bed]

Hey heads up, I went to the blog you had listed and it goes to a blog for growing/using marijauna. YOu have an extra t in your addy, I took it out and got to your real blog, but you might want to fix it.

 

LOL. So that's why parents of large families stay so patient and calm all the time.

[HRAAB]

I have 5, so I voted 5 because it feels large compared to most families. My in-laws had 14 but will say it never felt large - it was just their family, one child at a time. Is it perspective?

 

Janet

[Tutor]

I used to consider a family with more than two kids large, but now that we have four, I don't feel it is all that big. :001_smile: Six seems big to me now. (Let's see how I feel if we end up with six, though. ;))

[KidsHappen]

I get a noticably different response when I have four or more with me than I do when I have three or less. Of course, when people see me with a slew of girls they just assume that I am trying for a boy. When I tell them that my oldest is a boy then they want to know why I had so many. Someone just recently asked if we were planning on having any more now that the youngest is 9. No, I don't have to. I have a grandchild now. Yeah!

[Melissa in Australia]

I grew up in a family of 8 children, so I don't view 5 children as a large family at all!

[M&M]

We live in New Jersey people thought it was something when we had three children although that was considered large to some. Now that we have five, people stop and stare. I was asked by an older woman at church (who has one dd) if I was trying to be Michelle Duggar when I was pg with #5...huh?!

[tricia]

Thanks for letting me know about my blog address. I just got that fixed. How humiliating!! Almost like being caught with your pants down or something!! Yikes

 

Tricia

http://www.mommyx12.blogspot.com

[lynn]

Here in the South, southern bells always have their quota of 2 children any thing over that is "Bless your heart, you poor dear, I don't know how you do it"

[FlockOfSillies]

alot of people see us with 3 kiids and say "whoa...3 kids....you have your hands full".

 

It's always driven me nuts when people have said that to me. Granted, my #2 and #3 are only 18 months apart, so people would start brain farting through their mouths when they saw two littles and a preschooler.

 

Now that I have three olders, a baby and a pregnant belly, we're starting to hear, "Are they all yours?" and "Don't you know what causes that?" :rant:

 

I answered that both 5 and 6+ are big families. With #5, our house will be full to capacity, but I still think of big families as being really big -- six or more. Both dh and I grew up in families with five kids, so it always seemed like a good number to us. But these days, anything more than the bare minimum required to perpetuate the species gets you comments and strange looks.

 

I will say, though, that every once in a while I hear something nice. The guy at the valet parking garage saw me load up the crew into the truck and said, "You're my hero." :D