My sister had nine. I asked her what prompted her to have that many children--the church?

She stopped to think, but really couldn't come up with more than, 'I always wanted lots of children'.

I again asked, why? Because the church recommended lots of children?

3 siblings.
Oldest(male): 8 kids
Me (male): 3 kids
Youngest(female): 4 kids

Guess who is the only TBM of the three?


If you guessed the oldest, you win a cookie :)

Oldest brother = 8 Gay in High School now Uber TBM
Sister = 4 LDS Social Climber BM(they lose the T if they are more liberal Mormon)
Sister = 6 TBM
Sister = 8 Polygamist Uber TBM
Brother = 4 Exmormon
Me = 3
Brother = 5 Uber TBM
Sister = 5 Uber TBM
Brother = 4 (maybe more) LDS Social Climber TBM
Sister = 3 TBM (had uterus removed)

You really have a polygamist in the family? Is she FLDS?

No she is AUB - Apostolic United Brethren.

http://52weeks52churches.blogspot.com/2014/05/my-surreal-visit-to-apostolic-united.html

Oldest sibling, super TBM has 3
Next one is also TBM and has 3
I'm next, with 5
Next one is super TBM and has 3
Next one is exmo and has 1
Last one is exmo and has 2

My family size has nothing to do with mormonism though. My wife and I decided we were done at 4. It was what we were comfortable with.

We put off taking "permanent measures", mostly out of lazy procrastination, and 8 years after number 4, we were surprised with a fifth.

Permanent measures have now been taken.

My parents had 3 kids.

My sister has 2 kids.

Me, and my brother, none.

I have an uncle with 6 girls and 1 boy. That's the only large family I know of.

There were 5 of us and soon after I got married my father told me that he expected to have 20 grandkids. That was *only* 4 apiece and that should be easy. Cause, you know, if it was fewer than he had it wasn't that many.

I always thought "screw you, you can't dictate how many grandkids you have." But he did. I only had 3 but one brother made mine up for me and had 5. The other three had their obligatory four (not for that reason, that's just how many they ended up with). But they're going to town on the great-grandkids, Nineteen (I believe) and two on the way. And some of the TBM grandkids haven't even got started.

Have to admit it was me. 7 kids. Yes, I felt very pressured by the church to have as many as possible. Probably would only have had 3. Wouldn't send any back, but it was sure hard on my health especially since husband was always away. Bishopric, young men's. Church made me a single mom.

In birth order....

1 Brother (TBM) = 6
2 Sister(TBM) = 5
3 Sister (was TBM, then exmo, now dead) = 7
4 Sister (was TBM, now exmo) = 3
5 Brother (TBM) = 4
6 Me (exmo) = 2

I thinks it's cool that we had 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, and 2 kids between us. Of those kids 13 were boys, 14 were girls....my daughter was the last one and she broke the tie between boys and girls.

Oldest - 1
Second - 3 (She is the only active mormon--not TBM.)
Me - 2
Fourth - 1
Fifth - 0 (He is mentally and physically disabled)
Sixth - 1

And, as I've said before, my daughter is the only TBM of all the grand and great grandkids.

Brother (exmo) - 1 (but just got remarried, so he will probably have one more)
Me - 3 (we are done)
Sister (TBM) - 2
Sister (TBM) - 3, but wants more
Brother (exmo) - none, hasn't married yet
Brother (TBM) - none, his wife is in grad school
Sister (exmo) - 2

So yea, out of 7 of us, there are only 11 grandkids. My TBM parents are super jealous of their friends that have less kids, but more grandkids, or of anyone that has more grandkids.
My TBM sister with only 2 kids realized how overwhelming it is to raise children, so she decided 2 was it. They are able to give them lots of opportunities for extra-curricular activities, plus they travel a ton.
The TBM sister with 3, but wants more is a social climber. It's 'trendy' where we live amongst the Mo's to have 4 kids. She is trying to meet that quota, even though she doesn't take care of the 3 she has. It's absurd.

If the scripture they all reference says to multiply and replenish the earth, how does that get interpreted as having as many as possible? Do the leaders tell people to have as many as possible? What is said to these people? When I was a teenager and still being forced to go to church, there was a family in the ward with 10 kids. #10 has Down's Syndrome. The disgusting husband would make comments about how women were just baby-making machines. As a teenage girl, hearing him say that about women really stuck with me. So what made them quit after 10? Because they were 'blessed' with a child with Down's?
I wish this site had eye-rolling emojis!

My parents were hardcore Mormons which had the opposite effect on all of their kids.
Sister 0 inactive
Brother 0 Resigned
Brother 0 resigned
Brother 0 resigned
Me 0 resigned
sister 0 inactive
Brother 2 excommunicated and he is 52 years old the youngest so that's, end of the line. My parents pushed hard TBM garbage on us and since it was the 1960's for most of us we pushed back hard.

7 siblings

Oldest Brother - 8 kids (TBM, with super fanatical wife, definitely her choice for that many)

Next Brother - 7 kids (outwardly TBM, but a sociopath, manipulator so who knows)

Me- 0 (Resigned in my early 20s wasn't against kids, but didn't want a lot, then it just didn't happen, now it's late for that, which is fine with me)

1st Younger brother- 0 kids (was inactive, now active, just can't seem to keep a girl interested long enough.. but I really think he is a closet gay.. back living at home in his 40s, really sad he doesn't feel he can be himself)

youngest Brother- 4 kids (TBM, but they have a kid with special needs and had them all too close together until they were so overwhelmed they actually decided they needed to stop.)

Younger Sister- 3 kids (TBM, still young, so probably more to come)

Youngest Sister - 3 kids (another TBM, but also young so probably more to come.. though at least she and our other sister aren't having them too close together and I think they are trying to also take care of their own needs so hopefully won't have too many more, we'll see!)

I was a convert who didn't last long, so in my immediate family, my brother was the only one who had a child, my niece. I have 0 children which is fine with me. We were a nevermo family, so my parents just had me and my younger brother.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 02:25PM by adoylelb.

My parents had 5 kids

me - 4 - we are out - 2 kids in and 2 kids out
Sister - 0 - out
Sister - 2 - out - both kids out
Brother - 0 - out
Brother - 1 - all TBM

So, out of 5 kids in the family one is still in. Out of 5 kids there are 7 grand kids with 3 still in. 2 of the 3 grand kids are not what you would call TBM (ski on Sunday etc..)

My TBM younger brother has 6. They were very poor and couldn't afford 1 let alone 6.

Their reason? When their first one (born a few weeks shy of 9 months) was about 2, he told his parents he had 5 brothers and sisters. They made that come true, because ya know, 2 year olds always know what they're talking about.

Every one of their kids are mental,physical, and emotional train wrecks. It's really quite sad.

This is the same brother that attempted to molest me and another sister. I have to wonder what went on in that house. I've never been to their house, and never will.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 02:39PM by janis.

Janis, that would be funny if it were not so sad.

oldest brother = 6
oldest sister = 8
middle brother = 6
middle sister = 6
youngest sister= 6
me = 2



In all cases for them IMO they had large families because
they're TBM. (Oldest sister-in-law went slightly bonkers when her youngest was almost a year old and husband was pressuring her for one more and had to come live with us with just her youngest two children for several months.) My wife and I were forced to stop at 2 for medical reasons, but we think 2 is the perfect number of children anyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/13/2017 06:40PM by scmd.

Me 8 - when we met my wife and I both wanted (independently) six children - not because of church teaching, but because that was what we liked the idea of. Our sixth died at birth. We had another, and number eight was unplanned.
Brother 4 - married a non-member who later joined, both relatively active. Not related to church teaching.
Sister 3 - married to a member, both active. Third was to try for a girl (they got). He would happily have had none. She might have had more if he did.
Brother 0 - can't have children. Married in the temple, but both have left church.

In my experience (in the UK) most people just have the number of children they feel comfortable having. I know bishops and some stake presidents who have had vasectomies. In our stake there are only two other families with the number of children we have. Three is probably an average, but four is common.

My family and I are all nevermos, I have one brother, we each have four kids. I have 3 grandkids, two adopted from foster care at an older age, and one biological grandson, 18 months. My brother has one grandson so far. Except back in my grandparent's generation nobody had more than 4 kids, most had less. Same goes for my nevermo husband's family.

At one point she had six babies in diapers because the two sets of twins arrived before first two kiddies were old enough to be potty trained.

Me and my siblings in order of birth:

1) two
2) one
3) three
4) three
5) five
6) three
7) three

None of us wanted a big family after coming from one. The one with five stands out for having faced the harshest economic ups and downs. I'm the one with a single child. I really, really hated growing up in a big family with an authoritarian Mormon at the head.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/14/2017 06:29PM by donbagley.