Families with 5 children

[Arimeh]

Just asking a hypothetical question - how does having 5 change the family dynamics?

How do the bedrooms usually end up - do you need a huge house or do more than 2 share?

How much more expensive is it to have 5 instead of 4?

All hypothetical, purely asking for for research purposes..

[minimatron]

LOL... hypothetical? mmmm I dont have 5 but coming from a family of 8, we all shared as many as you could cram into a room!
So.... on another note.... do I do 4? Is it getting easier now #4 is a bit older?

[MamaPan]

i only have 2 but interested in your hypothetical question LOL!
I know families of 8 and 10 kids (older than us) and they had up to 4 in a room (bunk beds) was a big house with bedrooms and lots of living space...
Became harder when they were older.. in the younger days it was aged based sharing and then gender

[minimatron]

Sorry I was so wrapped up in getting around to my question to you but.... like MummaPan said, when we were younger there were 4 in a room. My family goes... girl, boy,girl, boy and another 4 boys. Us older 4 shared until it was a bit of an issue for my sister and I. The boys shared although my older brother being the extravert he is (in nicer terms) got his own room from early on (he was a terd of a teenager. Once 5 of my brothers shared. We did have a bigger than average house and a big yard.
After #5 was born, we didnt do family holidays. As for school, I worked from about 12 so that I could put towards a school of my choice. We did use food hampers from the local church though, even though my dad worked and worked. I loved being from a big family. There was lots of love around and instant friends. (I just answered my own question...)

[Sterla]

Hypothetical 'ay?

[Feijoa Mum]

Hmmmmmmm hypothetical huh???

Well yes and no. I know our situation is different from your "hypothetical one" in that my older boys are teenagers so very much in the "parents suck, my friends are everything and I want to be as far away and spend as little time as possible with my family" stage.
DH and I joke whenever we go somewhere or do something that it will just be "our weekend family"

We have a 4 bedroom house and nobody shares (well except me and DH) We have forfeited the garage and turned it into two bedrooms and a rumpus room kinda thing, so everyone has their own space and they also have somewhere to go with their friends to hang out. This has been done with blinds and bookshelves etc as makeshift walls nothing permanent.

Holidays are crazy expensive as "families" are apparently two adults and two kids so to be honest an extra child hasnt affected that bit.
I dont really know how much more expensive going from 4 to 5 would be normally because our number 5 was Lady, so that changed the rules and made her one very expensive little girl That was very much my doing and had she been a little boy it would have just been another spud in the pot as we had everything from S already.

We had a 7 seater car anyway so that wasnt an issue.

I love it, sure I would like more room, more money, more sanity, more time but as Guy Sebastian says "If you only think of things that you havent got, you could have it all and still never have enough"

Oh and I promise they will eventually sleep

[Gigi]

As for school, I worked from about 12 so that I could put towards a school of my choice.

minimatron, how does that work?

how does casual wages (working afterschool, or on weekends), earn enough in one year, at 12 year old wages, to change where you go to school (i'm presuming highschool starting at 13)?

i'm really curious.

[cathie5]

hey,
I have 6 kids, the twins share and the rest have there own rooms. 7 is on the way so he will have to be with us for awhile and than share with charlie second youngest. As for money My hubby has an excellent job so we are really lucky, we own our own home and cars so we have no debts at all. I stay at home and look after the kids but when they get older I will reopen our bussiness again. Alex 16 goes to catholic high school and Jack 11, Lily 6 goes to the local public school up the road.

cathie

[Arimeh]

LOL... hypothetical? mmmm I dont have 5 but coming from a family of 8, we all shared as many as you could cram into a room!
So.... on another note.... do I do 4? Is it getting easier now #4 is a bit older?

4 changes everything I have found - size of house, car type (no more sedan!) family holidays...

But if you are happy with that - definitely!!! It does get easier as they get older, i am less stressed these days but more sleep would be nice... Lol

[Miss.September]

I have a brother and three stepsisters so my parents went through the same scenario!

Even though they only visited once a fortnight for one night, the set up was I shared a room with one s/s, the two younger s/s shared and my brother being the only boy had the smallest room to himself. The house was five bedrooms so one was left for mum funny enough - step dad was a chronic snorer so she slept in the other room. The car was a seven seater patrol. My s/s stopped visiting after a while but my parents didn't downsize the house and kept the same size car.

The other side of things is I also have two s/brothers. So when my brother and I would visit my dad, I would share with the youngest s/b and my brother would share with the older one. It was a three bedroom house that was eventually extended to have an additional bedroom and then I had a room to myself and the three boys would alternate who they bunked in with (depending on who was getting on with whom lol). Car then was a stationwagon with a fold out seat in the front (gear stuff was behind the steering wheel to make room for the seat ITMS).

[Artechim]

These hypothetical threads of yours are usually followed by an announcement a couple of months later lol

Nice to see you back

[OceanPrincess]

These hypothetical threads of yours are usually followed by an announcement a couple of months later lol

Nice to see you back

Agree completely with this statement

[Heaven]

LOL Mel. I'm sure whatever happens you will just make it work

[Beach Mama]

Pure market research I am sure I would think it would be the same as going from 2 3- 3-4 4-5 etc. There are challenges, changes and adjustments for everyone but as Heaven said, you would make it work regardless! good luck hun!

[misty]

I am interested in this hypothetical question. We have a tiny little 3bedroom house and four kids - so, housing is a big reason we have decided on no more kids (small rooms, they already have bunks and not sure you could even fit another bed in anywhere).

[~Gee_Whizzy~]

Just asking a hypothetical question - All hypothetical, purely asking for for research purposes..

- you know i'll now have to be stalky McStalker again?!

I have no idea about dynamics, i struggle with two

[Traveller]

It's not on the table for us but really wouldn't change anything (except my career ). We have two boys in one room, one in another and our DD in another. All three rooms have bunk beds therefore we have an empty bed in a boy room and an empty bed in the girl room already. I don't think I could do it in a smaller than 4 bedroom house though. I also have an 8 seater car with room for extra kids. So honestly I doubt 4 to 5 would be a big deal. I suspect 3 to 4 would be a bigger change as it involves an upgrade from a regular to a plus size car, but as I didn't personally experience that change I couldn't say for sure

[MrsFabuloso]

riiiight...hypothetical. I remember those hypothetical questions and before Miss S too.....