Family Size

Am I the only one stuck in the middle of too big to be normal but too small to be so crazy you get a TV show lol? It seems like a "large" family varies so much. By who you are, where you live, who you hang out with, and even day by day. I mean you go from, "oh an only child?" to the "average" family, then you move on to the next step in "average" when your 3 kids now outnumber the parents. After that 4 is some phenomenum that people only think happens by accident or when you are trying for "that" boy (or girl). Of course once you get that "you are stopping now that you got your boy (or girl), right". So when you have 5 people start to think (with a dropped jaw) you really are one of those crazy people with a bigger than "average" family.

But if you start looking at "large" families, you find the families you see on TV: Jon and Kate plus 8, Table for 12, Kids by the Dozen, 18 kids and counting, (and I am sure Octomom will be in there one day), etc. Hey, maybe I have a small family? That is until I go to Walmart and get the dropped jaws, and the older 2 are even still at school.

So what constitutes a "large" family? The U.S. Census Bureau doesn't offer an official definition of large families, said spokewoman Angela Baker. The bureau's data on children, however, does provide information on siblings. According to the bureau, about 21 percent of children have no siblings, about 39 percent have one sibling, about 25 percent have two siblings, about 10 percent have three siblings and 5 percent have four or more siblings.

I guess I am part of the 5% of parents whose kids have 4 or more siblings. But not large enough to make money off it. I am one of the families too large for a single hotel room but not so big I have to drive a large passenger van. Big enough to draw stares but not so big that I don't still have to take them all out in public every day. I guess I'm a small, large family.

Oh and PS, I am perfectly fine right there.