this post was submitted on 17 Jul 2026
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Maybe it's just cuz I've got a neurospicy bean who is AuDHD and PDA af, but I do not understand how people can have more than a couple kids. Hell, my wife is the oldest of 5 and it's crazy how much abuse I now see they all endured (both neglect and actual SA abuse of the youngest ones that wasn't brought to light until a few years ago).
Right? I've got one kid and I've got my hands full! I can't imagine having more kids than I wanted because of lack of access to contraception. Sounds like a nightmare.
My mother wanted two, got two at once, went "DONE NOW" and it was for the best.
Bro I've got my hands full with two cats.
The folks who have large numbers of kids typically start handing off childcare duties to the older ones as soon as they're physically capable of doing those tasks. Especially the girls - usually these sorts of families don't want boys doing child care unless there are no girls, but the boys start getting used for labor around the same age.
More than once I have heard of the eldest child in these situations running off as soon as they are 18 and going no-contact.
My eldest aunts ended up being pregnant the same time my grandmother was often.
There's a lot of resentment and grudges in my family tree.
Sounds like there might be more grudges than branches.
Lol they aren't inbred. My grandmother had 16 children so my eldest aunts were old enough to have their own babies while my grandmother was continuing to get pregnant herself.
Yeah, I grew up catholic and that's how the big families I knew were. You had kids who were largely raised by their big sisters raising the younger siblings… And no, they weren't ok, they ranged from mad about it to excited to be the mom in such a dynamic
You see, it's simple -- once you've been going for 5 or 6 years, you make the older children take care of the younger ones. Parentification is fun and saves you lots of work!
often it's just the lack of contraception and/or appropriate education.
No, some people get a thrill out of the power of making more people, of having a huge family, even if they don't take good care of them.
I personally don't get it. But I have a friend who is a really incompetent person - when we hang out, we have to make extra sure she doesn't do dangerous things like she is a child. She is a sweet person, but very oblivious in a way that is hard to put a pin on. She is married, and her husband takes care of her and has always seemed to kind of like the responsibility. To each their own. But they now have 2 kids and he is completely overwhelmed. But she wants more and keeps talking about trying to talk him into it or 'oops' getting pregnant again in a few years. We all yell at her when she says stuff like that.
It is the perfect flip-flop of the usual gender roles - where Dad has all the responsibility and doesn't want more, and Mom just sees it as some kind of power trip about her self image and is oblivious or just doesn't care that it would break her partner.
There are certainly people who choose to do this. But in the time period pictured, it is more likely that this woman had no other choice.
Oh absolutely. Women were basically property then and no one had any concept of 'spousal rape'.
I was more addressing the mentality when people do it now - that it shouldn't be assumed to be ignorance about birth control
That’s fair, there certainly can be a power dynamic shift within a relationship with regard to number of children.