Mathew Futch
Staff Reporter
There are many stigmas in the world about big families being expensive and harmful. All you have to do is a simple google search, “Why are big families bad?” and you would hear plenty of slander against big families.
The point of this editorial is to clear this misconception up and tell you my personal experience of being in a big family. I am the third oldest in my large family with eight siblings, making my family nine kids and two adults large. I shared my room with three of my siblings at most but am currently only sharing with one since time has passed. My dad is the only one working in my family to support all the kids, which was rough at first but my dad was promoted to manager at the “QuickTrip” gas station where he works. Another big money saver was my stepmom using a lot of coupons and taking sales when we see them for food.
Many believe living in a big family prevents alone time and ruins the sense of privacy in small houses. While I say this is somewhat true, since there are so many people, many do not consider that everyone in the house wants alone time, so we all just do our own thing sometimes. Privacy also has been a big thing enforced onto us since we were young, especially because I do have some nosey siblings.
Being one of the oldest, I would say made me an attention seeker. I have come to the conclusion that this is hard to get over and this is often seen through my personality. When my family mixed in with my stepmother’s family it was messy. However, my dad wanted more kids, which I suppose is nicer now than it was then. It does kind of scare me how much of me goes into them.
After fighting about it, I do get space, and I am happy with my living situation. Having 8 siblings means I always have someone to talk too, or just hang out with. Our personalities did clash with each other, but we began to rub off on each other as well and get along much better. In case anyone was thinking that we never do anything fun, we do, but money management is important.
The stigma social media has created over big families is mostly false and should be taken lightly, though every family is different and I am only speaking from my experience.
Image Credit: homesweethomemaker.org
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