Originally Posted By DAR <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070803/ap_on_fe_st/17_kids_2" target="_blank">http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200 70803/ap_on_fe_st/17_kids_2</a> Isn't this just a tad excessive? I'm sure they're a very loving family but slow down a bit.
Originally Posted By imadisneygal ^^^You'd think! She did say that from the start of active labor to the baby being born it was about 30 minutes. That's pretty fast, but not as fast as I'd think after 16 other kids!
Originally Posted By RC Collins >>Isn't this just a tad excessive?<< Reproductive rights and choice... remember? Or does that only apply to people who want abortions?
Originally Posted By RC Collins PS We need more children in this country. Since Roe v. Wade, we haven't been producing enough people for our own workforce, hence the "need" for 12-25 million illegal aliens on top of all of the legal immigrants. Notice that unemployment is extremely low.
Originally Posted By wonderingalice *LOL* Ursula and imadisneygal! I was going to say the same thing... Kinda like that scene in "Monty Python's 'The Meaning of Life'" movie... "Get that for me would you, Deirdre?" RC... Of course they have the right to have an excessive number of children. ;-) Obviously, no one's stoppin' 'em.
Originally Posted By x Pirate_Princess x I've seen them on TLC or something!! They built their own house. They have no debt. Pay cash for everything. Make their own clothes. They actually have a pretty good system going. I wish I had just a FRACTION of that lady's patience. She is a SAINT!
Originally Posted By wonderingalice ^^While the kids are cleaning the 7,000 ft. house and mowing what must be a gigantic yard. ;-) Seriously, though... The older kids are no doubt being worked - hard - as babysitters.
Originally Posted By jonvn I know someone with 10 (11?) kids. It's disgusting. They live in squalor. The kids are "home schooled" by someone who never went to college and barely got out of high school. I think it amounts to child abuse.
Originally Posted By ecdc There's a family in Salt Lake two houses away from me that has 17 kids. They're on the news from time to time. But they were a combined marriage - not all from her. They have a bus parked out front. It's hilarious when they come home and I watch them get off the bus and count them. Good times.
Originally Posted By Ursula Does anyone know if it is true that they write off their super-huge house as a church and therefore don't pay taxes, or are partially exempt? If that is the case, then so many people should be able to do that, too. Why does this bother me so much?
Originally Posted By imadisneygal What bothers me is that, no matter what they might say, the older children are actually parenting the younger ones. No two people can effectively parent 17 children. I am not sure what the number of children is where parenting them becomes problematic, and I'm not saying it's not their own choice to make, but let's be realistic. Those two parents do not "parent" all 17 of their kids. They're using their older children to care for their younger ones. And no one person can effectively home school that many children of so many different ages. It's just not reasonable. And, apparently, I'm the new judge of what is reasonable. I don't know how many kids is too many, but 17 crosses the line in my book.
Originally Posted By barboy "Does anyone know if it is true that they write off their super-huge house as a church and therefore don't pay taxes, or are partially exempt?" Well if they do use the residence in that fashion they do not get the $250K exemption($500K for married) on gains or boot if the property had increased in vlaue and ultimately sold for more than its basis---no "double dipping" please.
Originally Posted By Mrs ElderP >>>They're using their older children to care for their younger ones.<<< My great-grandmother was born in a different time and a different place (Germany, 1890s) and she was one of the youngest of a family of 17. In her family each older child was matched with a younger child. My grandma says she was much sadder at the death of "her" sister than at the death of her mother, because "her" sister was her mother. As for effectivly homeschooling 17 or so kids ('cause they're not all school age of course) I think it can be done at the elementary level. (Think of the one room school houses of yore) However, at the advanced levels--those kids have to essentially be doing independent study. One last note, as someone who is LDS (mormon) I know a few huge families (10 or so kids) and I know of no child one from one of those families that has chosen to have that many kids.
Originally Posted By RC Collins >>What bothers me is that, no matter what they might say, the older children are actually parenting the younger ones.<< You know, for most of human history, families were large. That's because children were considered assets, not liabilities like they are considered now. Your children were expected to help out on the farm or the family business and with their younger siblings. That way, they learned how to really make a living and how to care for children. Women especially lived at home until they married. They tended to marry young anyway. Then, as the parents got really old, like 50 or 60, their children would take care of them. Now, people choose to bear children without a spouse. They stick them in day care all day, then full-day "pre-school" and kindergarten. They trust the government to educate them in school, stick them in after-school programs, and send them to "camp" in the summer or summer school. After all, who wants to raise their own children now? And now, people demand that "the government" take care of them in their old age. People stay "kids" will into their 20s, and isntead of getting married young, booze it up and fornicate with many different people. Now how can we be so cruel as to ask them to take time out of their partying to help out around the house they are living in? If more families were like this one, we'd all be a lot better off. How many of their kids run around defacing property and gang-banging? How many are running around with some white supremecist gang? My wager is NONE.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<I know someone with 10 (11?) kids. It's disgusting. They live in squalor. The kids are "home schooled" by someone who never went to college and barely got out of high school. I think it amounts to child abuse.>> <<It's time to bring China's policy over here.>> Those comments are a pretty good example of what is wrong with America today. Having 17 kids is not a decision I would make. Heck, having 7 kids like DVC_dad does is not a choice I would make. But to say there is something wrong with making that choice is small-minded and cruel. These are people who apparently are willing to give up some of the crap the rest of us think we need; 52" televisions, I-pods, Lexi (what the heck IS the plural of Lexus?) etc. and spend it on family instead. I just see no reason why anyone would put that choice down, even if like me it is a choice you would never make.
