Jump to content
IGNORED

Non-Fundie Megafamilies?


calimojo

Recommended Posts

Oh, I should have been clearer, sorry. I didn't mean to make it sound like I gave up on it after that post. I still read her when I remember. After that post and another one (I think?) that got some attention, she got quite a bit of troll activity and has slowed down with how much and what she posts which I completely understand. I disagree with her stance on a view things but I've learned to just skip those posts (vaccines, etc).

I like her writing a lot. But, yeah, occasionally she'll go off on something like vaccines and she breaks her 95% of the time rational thought process. I love how she fights for her kids, but I think that she's sometimes her own worse enemy. She seems very combative and deals with social situations in entirely the wrong way. There's a level of social awkwardness that I don't know that LM even notices in herself.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Replies 55
  • Created
  • Last Reply
don't forget the Hayes family from TLC's table for 12. 10 kids, two sets of twins and one set of sextuplets. They are Christians, attend a Lutheran or presby church, but NOT fundie, at all.

They're Catholic.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We have 9 children. Our foray into Fundamentalism was a direct result of having a large family, not fundamentalism dictated we had a large family. I went in search of practical resources for the daily functions of managing a large family and fell down the fundie trail, at the time the only place I could find resources on things like managing laundry, meal planning, etc.

I never homeschooled for religious reasons, that too came before the foray into Fundie-land. When my oldest came home at 7.5 with no education, my choices were to put him in second grade and make him feel stupid for being so behind academically, put him in Kindergarten and make him feel stupid for being so much older than his classmates, or homeschool him. Over the years, there were very good reasons to homeschool all of the kids and I was always strict to use secular curriculum or design my own if none was available.

Today, we have transitioned and live in a great school district. All but one child are public schooled. The last homeschool has dyslexia but extremely high IQ. The school systems cannot give him the highly individualized education he needs and thus we keep him home.

I never fell into fundamentalism, but also became interested in it for the same reasons. Very large family, and all the practical tips and discussion of how to manage came from fundamentalists.

And, I admit, there were some things about their lifestyle that really appealed to me, particularly as I was struggling to work full time in a demanding job, juggle all these kids, and try ( not very well ) to keep a couple of them out of the lure of gangs and crime. Fortunately, they all grew out of it and are functioning just fine as adults, but the simple, rural lifestyle with stay at home mom and protective, provider dad that fundamentalists presented seemed like a dream life at the time.

In reading through this thread I discovered there is actually a term for people who are both very, very intelligent and have some sort of special needs. In reading the description it fits a couple of my kids to a T, and it's, not surprisingly, the kids who we homeschooled the most.

It's called Twice Exceptional. Here's the Wikipedia article:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twice_exceptional

Link to comment
Share on other sites

In the UK, homeschooling tends to be more of a 'crunchy' thing so is dominated by non-religious and Pagan/Wiccan families, though there are a small number of ones doing it for fundie reasons. We have religious schools that are free and state-funded here so that's probably why - the religious homeschoolers here tend to be more extreme and not from mainstream denominations (most religious schools here are Anglican or Catholic). Our state schools are pretty good at handling developmental disabilities - my sister's dyslexia wasn't diagnosed til she was 15 or 16, but that seems to be unusual in my experience.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

My Mom is from a large, probably considered mega family, she has 14 brothers and sisters and my Dad has 7. They only had me and my brother. Both families are Catholic, as we are now, and I think a lack of birth control was the reason for many of those babies. My grandmother on my father's side had a miscarriage and 2 babies that died that are not in his sibling count. My parents were both born in the 60s and everyone had a huge family; a guy I went to school with had 9 siblings and that was not the norm. Most people have 2 or 3 but there are still some who continue the large family mode but not out of religious reasons because they really love kids and can afford them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 6 months later...

I tried searching for this but I can't find it. But a blog I like to follow is called Mystic Mud. They are a mega-family with 10 kids, two sets of twins (one fraternal boy/girl and one identical, boys). They don't appear to be religious on their blog, they are more crunchy really. Originally from Oregon, they now live on 4 acres of land on a remote mountain-top in TN, they live in a 600 sq ft mobile home. They have some chickens, a goat and a fire juggling neighbor. They homeschool, the mom makes home-made bread some of which she sells at a local market. Their kids have really unusual names like Columbus, Einstein and Sassy (not really sure if they are nicknames or real names but the son they call G-man, I'm sure is a nickname). The oldest boy is going to college to be an electrical engineer and he is receiving straight A's in his college work, so that speaks for something. They had baby born prematurely named Finn, that died a couple of years ago and the tribute they made for him on their blog was beyond beautiful. For Cinco de Mayo, they make strawberry margaritas on their picnic table and the fire juggling neighbor came over. They didn't have running water for a long time but I think David, the dad has fixed that now. But they do have a rain catchment container. The mom believes in cloth diapers, the kids seem to be happy on their homestead. They made anatomically correct ginger bread cookies (I'm not sure if I'm completely okay with that one but whatever). They heat their trailer with wood... not so sure that is safe but whatever, I think it is at least on the outside of the home. But, they are interesting, you should check out the blog if you are into that sort thing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.




×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

By using this site, you agree to our Terms of Use.