Nobody told you to have that many kids!

  • Thread starter Thread starter Famof6
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
F

Famof6

Guest
My wife and I just celebrated the birth of out fifth child!

One thing that I was not prepared for was the reaction of people around us, when we mention our family size. A lot of others think we are crazy, I just was we are very blessed.

Anyone else had similiar experiences.

Thanks, John

PS I will change my log on to Famof7.
 
[SIGN]Congratulations![/SIGN]

I am the oldest of 5…the last two are twins.

My mom always had lots of great comebacks to people who said things.

She also got a lot of “Did you plan on twins?” “Was it fertility treatments?” [no] “Would you have more if you could?” “How can you afford it?”

My mom is one funny woman so she always tried to be witty but polite.
 
[SIGN]Congratulations!!![/SIGN]

I’m the oldest of five, and it was great growing up in a big family.

Unfortunately, you’ll hear lots of stories here about people who have been through the same rude comments you’re getting. Just remember that your children are wonderful blessings from God and ignore the mean comments!

Congratulations again! 😃
 
Famof6 said:
My wife and I just celebrated the birth of out fifth child!

One thing that I was not prepared for was the reaction of people around us, when we mention our family size. f7.
Click to expand...
be prepared since the culture of extreme rudeness is upon us.

a frozen disdainful look, the kind you would give to someone who has insulted you unforgivably, is the only valid response (imagine you see a cockroach crawling out of their mouth).
 
We have four children, which truthfully I would probably prefer to be closer to 6, but even at what I consider a fairly modest number of children got rude comments. My personal favorite was when a young woman in her 20’s that I knew fairly well through my daughter’s gymnastics realized I had another child. She said, “Oh you have two children,I thought it was just one”. I replied proudly, “Actually I have four, two boys and two girls”. She stared at me dumbfoundedly for a second and said, “Well which are you Mormon or Catholic” I was vaguely insulted, but then said of course Catholic…I laugh at it now - I guess only Catholics and Mormons value life any more.
 
A Methodist friend with seven children used to tell people they “were not Catholic, just careless.” 😉
 
you are blessed.

it is amazing how rude people can be about anything in someone else’s life.

i have one son. and yet i am chastised by some members of OUR church who tell me that i shouldn’t use birth control…

what they don’t know is that i don’t.
and i wish i had more children,
but God doesn’t want me to have more apparently…

but people make comments where their noses don’t belong…
 
God bless you!!! It’s really a tragedy that so many people in this perverted society of ours are disdainful of large families… I’m the oldest of only 2, and my folks wish they’d had more… but God just had other ideas. (He was probably right on - as usual… I was quite a handful as a child!) But I’d definitely say pray for those poor people that despise God’s richest blessings…

God bless you and your family! Keep up the good work! 🙂
 
Famof6 said:
My wife and I just celebrated the birth of out fifth child!

One thing that I was not prepared for was the reaction of people around us, when we mention our family size. A lot of others think we are crazy, I just was we are very blessed.

Anyone else had similiar experiences.

Thanks, John

PS I will change my log on to Famof7.
Click to expand...
congratulations!! We brought our total to 4 this summer with the boys.

you will hear all sort of snarky comments … with a few sweet ones thrown in from time to time. 👍
 
There was time in our society when comments concerning the size of one’s family (large or small) and particularly, one’s plans for future childen, was considered so deeply personal as to be extremely rude.

Sadly, those days are gone.

Really, the only appropriate comment to make, especially to someone you don’t know well, is a compliment on the person’s lovely family. “What a lovely family you have!” That’s it. Because you don’t know if the person with only one is longing for more, or if the person with six actually WANTED to have six and planned things that way or if the one with four is thrilled to have them but absolutely at the end of her rope because of financial difficulties.

This is from someone expecting her ninth. I swear, I’ve heard every stupid joke in the book, particularly the ones about how we need to get a TV or cable or something…

Margaret

PS Congratulations on number five!
 
Famof6 said:
My wife and I just celebrated the birth of out fifth child!

One thing that I was not prepared for was the reaction of people around us, when we mention our family size. A lot of others think we are crazy, I just was we are very blessed.

Anyone else had similiar experiences.

Thanks, John

PS I will change my log on to Famof7.
Click to expand...
Congratulations!! What a beautiful start to a large family 😛 😉 😃

I have found that the more kids I have, the less comments I get. I’m either too distracted to hear the comments, too deaf from chattering kids to hear them or people have given up on me 🤷 When we do get comments they are usually from the curious (“how do you do it”) or those that like to reminisce (“I grew up in a family or 7,8 or 9.”) I don’t mind those. I know my family is different and “different” will bring comments.

For a while, my kids and I would play a game of sorts, a pool if you will. Whenever we went out for a small trip or errands, etc, we’d each pick a # trying to guess how many comments we would get from strangers. At the end of the day we would see who came the closest. Its a way of acknowledging to my kids that we are different, and making the comments (rude and otherwise) more tollerable for my kids. It seems to have worked.

Again, congratulations on your new blessing. A sibling is the BEST gift you can give to your children! 👍
 
My BIL and his wife just had number 12 (that’s right, TWELVE!) a couple months ago. Someone asked him (at church, no less), “Don’t you know what causes that?”

BIL responded (very seriously): “Well, we’ve been narrowing it down for the last few years and now we THINK we know what it might be, but just to make sure, we’re going to try it again and see what happens.”
 
Congratulations on the new baby!

It’s kind of funny. I am rather proud of our family size. Of course, I get lots of support and encouragement from other Catholic homeschooling moms. But, my dh gets a lot more flack than I do–esp. at his work. So, I think it’s harder on dads.

God bless. If they don’t criticize you for your family size, it’ll just be something else…sadly.
 
I’m the second oldest of five brothers and sisters. Growing up in our neighborhood, that was not uncommon; and it wasn’t just Catholics that had large families. In fact, if you only had two, people kept wondering when the next ones were going to come along.
 
I’m the youngest of 5 myself and I have 3 children.

I just think you have been Blessed.👍

Paul
 
I am very proud that we had four children. Now we are getting all the weddings happening with subsequent grandchildren coming along! We feel very blessed.
Our only regret is that we didn’t have more!:rolleyes:
 
thenewmrssears said:
[SIGN]Congratulations![/SIGN]

I am the oldest of 5…the last two are twins.

My mom always had lots of great comebacks to people who said things.

She also got a lot of “Did you plan on twins?” “Was it fertility treatments?” [no] “Would you have more if you could?” “How can you afford it?”

My mom is one funny woman so she always tried to be witty but polite.
Click to expand...
Can you remember any of the comebacks your mom used? We only have three kids, but after the third one family and friends started making rude jokes about contraception, etc. Many of the people around us are unsupportive. Like someone else said, I think it affects my husband more. I would like to have another, but he is afraid, I think largely because of peer and family pressure. We’re doing NFP for his sake.

How sad that children have come to be seen as a burden rather than a blessing. I can only hope that my own children won’t suffer this when they start their families, as we are trying to bring them up closer to the Church than either of us were.
 
AnotherChance said:
Can you remember any of the comebacks your mom used? We only have three kids, but after the third one family and friends started making rude jokes about contraception, etc. Many of the people around us are unsupportive. Like someone else said, I think it affects my husband more. I would like to have another, but he is afraid, I think largely because of peer and family pressure. We’re doing NFP for his sake.

How sad that children have come to be seen as a burden rather than a blessing. I can only hope that my own children won’t suffer this when they start their families, as we are trying to bring them up closer to the Church than either of us were.
Click to expand...
For the truely rude: Birth control is for ugly peple:nunchuk:
 
Congrats!

I was one of two kids, and I have often wished I could have had more sibs. Especially sisters. Then I might have known how to deal with women 😛

And Miss Bonnie and I had only two, and we both wish we’d had more (we weren’t Catholic at the time).

DaveBj
 
I think its great to have children and you know I’ve asked about someones family size it was just to comment on how cool it was…I wish I could have had more…I have 3 sons…grown now…

So if someone comments maybe they think its great 🙂 🤷
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top