The world tells us that having a large family isn’t possible to do successfully. Something’s gotta give. Somebody’s gotta come out holding the short end of the stick. There simply isn’t enough time or enough money to raise a large family and do it well, right? Interestingly, or maybe logically - coming at this from the angle I am - a 1998 Ohio State University study yielded results that scientifically counter society’s view that LDS large families suffer due to lack of resources. And I say “LDS large families” specifically because this was true only... more

The last question, about how we do (fill-in-the-blank) obviously depends on what’s being asked, but I have learned through experience that I can do a lot of things with a large family I never imagined I could. I won’t go into specifics here since the field is wide open, but trust me, if you can take 9 kids on a plane to Disneyland, there isn’t much you can’t do. ;)

Satan wants us to believe that big families are too much work, that they require too much sacrifice, and that it will be emotionally damaging to the children we already have to add... more

The second question I mentioned, “Are you able to spend one-on-one time with your kids?” is another one I wonder about. There’s no denying that spending time with your children together and separately is a good thing, but I can’t help thinking that the emphasis on “one-on-one time” and “quality time” stems from the guilt we feel about relying on childcare, and scheduling our children’s extracurricular activities as though they’re little executives. (And please note that I said “we” and am not being critical of moms who work outside the home. I’ve been... more

Let’s take the first question – finances. I think most people would agree that many of our 2007 “needs” would have been constituted “wants” in earlier times. Beyond that, our culture has begun to place importance on things that earlier generations couldn’t have conceived of. A good example, and a pertinent one in our family’s life, is the importance of college funds. Our children have no college funds, at least not yet, and many people we know consider this unthinkable. Our take is that our most important “savings” are our two-year supply of food and... more

And regarding mothers working outside the home, President Hinckley said in 1996:

“I recognize … that there are some women (it has become very many in fact) who have to work to provide for the needs of their families. To you I say, do the very best you can. I hope that if you are employed full-time you are doing it to ensure that basic needs are met and not simply to indulge a taste for an elaborate home, fancy cars, and other luxuries. The greatest job that any mother will ever do will be in nurturing, teaching, lifting, encouraging,... more

According to a demographic study published in the Journal of Population Studies in 1979, LDS women born between 1800 and 1869 averaged 9 live births per woman married at 20, and 6 live births per woman married at 25. LDS families tended to be larger through most of the 20th century, but began to decline toward the latter end. LDS birthrates are still higher, but have followed essentially the same trends as the rest of the country; for me... more

Tonight, I caught a bit of a CNN program which included a panel of three individuals who were weighing in on Angelina Jolie’s plans to adopt a little boy from Viet Nam. Since I missed the beginning, I’m not sure what “qualified” these people to debate Angelina’s family planning, nor do I know what aspects of her adoption they’d discussed prior to my tuning in – nevertheless, I got an earful. One of the panelists questioned how Angelina and Brad’s children could get enough attention when there were “so many” of them, and also commented that their 10-month-old... more

We're home from our trip and I thought I'd sum up our little travelog with some of the experiences we had with people's perceptions of our family. And just for fun, enjoy a photo of us with my paternal grandmother, taken at my in-laws' house. She's the proud grandma to 20 and great-grandma to 53, not counting any "on-the-way" kids. Amazing.

The Good:

Several times during our trip, people stopped us to tell us how impressed they were with our children and how well behaved they were. Our kids certainly aren’t perfect and... more

The park closed shortly thereafter (at 6:00 – I don’t know why!) so we decided to head back over to Disneyland for the remainder of the night. We had grand ideas of finishing out the evening over there, but by the time we got there, hit the Matterhorn and had dinner, we were completely pooped and decided to close the curtains on our Disney experience. We watched a little bit of the parade from afar and did some quick last-minute souvenir shopping. I took Joshua and Zoe to buy some things Joshua had seen earlier over in Tomorrow Land and sent Curtis and the rest of the kids with the B family to wait for the shuttle. We hurried as fast as we could, but just as we were leaving the Disney... more

Since we couldn’t go on the roller coaster, the B family opted to go see a couple of shows in the Bug’s Life area, and we headed off to go on a few rides. The older kids and I went on a smaller roller coaster I can’t remember the name of (something about the streets of London and similar to the Wild Mouse at Lagoon) and it scared the heck out of me. I didn’t like being whipped out over the edge of the track and jerked from side to side, and Zoe hated it as much as I did. We gave Curtis and the boys the rest of our Fast Passes and Zoe, Maizie, Sofie and I decided... more