One of my sisters had 11 children. Wow, right?

She proudly announced her 34th grandchild today -- her youngest child's third. Eight or nine of my sister's older kids have stopped having more children, the younger ones might not be finished. So far that works out to an average of only three children per couple. Nothing extreme about that. I'm guessing their experiences soured them on large families. Hurray.

The more educated women are, the fewer children they have.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/pressroom/97facts/edu2birt.htm

Zowie! You win bonus points for using the Word of the Day.
Fedundity! Yay!

(FWIW my husband's uncle has 10 children. All names proceed through the alphabet A___, B___, etc. The twins got G & H. :)

Interesting thread this weekend showing that among the newest GA's, average kid number is 3.7.

And yet, these men are of the approximately same generation as myself, and I was taught continually in the LDS church to have as many kids as I could, regardless of circumstances. The church even sent ass(*&^% like John Groberg around to our stakes to tell us to have as many kids as he and his DW did, 10!

He said we would be blessed financially, as he was. He was full-time lifetime employee of the church, how convenient for them.

When I showed him my last-born, and said he was here because of John's (and TSCC's) teachings, and that I had no idea how to provide for him or his siblings, he was silent. How dare I show such a lack of faith before a true servant of Jesus Christ!

My DW apologizes for these new GA's, saying that things are different now, and that TSCC teaches a different doctrine about family size now. But these gentlemen were young marrieds when I was, and heard the same teachings I did. And now, they are the most faithful, rewarded with wealth and high church position.

I'm the oldest of 11, and we don't even quite have 3 per child, but some of the younger ones aren't done. Nobody has more than 6, most have stopped at an average of 3. We have five, but that's because a little boy in need of a home dropped in our lap three years ago, otherwise we would have 4.

If the Lord made college more affordable in the US, I bet our loins would become more fruitful

I'm from a family of 7. I hated every minute of it. No privacy, no respect for your things. Never having my own clothing. The constant chaos and noise. Never enough money, never any love or affection.

Once I escaped, I didn't have any children until I was almost 30, which was really old for that time. I made sure I didn't have more than 2 kids.

mia Wrote:
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> The constant chaos and noise.

That's what made it hard to visit my sister. I had assumed that those in the middle of constant chaos stop noticing it. It just seems normal to them. I guess I was wrong.

Grew up in a family of 10 kids. I have 4, and will have the smallest family, except for one sister whose situation prevents more children. My folks have 47 grandchildren and that number is likely to grow by at least a dozen. Reunions are CRAZY!! But, they all seem happy, content, and uber-righteous.