Big Family

If you guys don't know me already, I have 4 sisters and one brother making a total of 6 children in my family. Both of my parents are together resulting in a grand total of 8 people in my family. That's a big family even for me to say. Over the years, it has become normal to have so many people in my family and generally I don't even realise how big we are until I tell other people and their mouths form a big o to match their surprised faces.

Nowadays, most people have 1 or 2 brothers or sisters with generally a max of perhaps 3 and sometimes even 4. It's very rare to have such a big family, and I'm not sure I've met many people with the amount of siblings that I do. As with anything there are some positives and negatives of having such a large family with so many siblings. I thought for everyone who has 1 or 2 brothers or sisters, I would enlighten you on the joys and lows of having so many siblings in this blog:

♥ You're never lonely
Whenever we were kids, there was never a time when we didn't have someone to play with. There was always someone and I loved that. Although children are quite happy to play by themselves most times and have a hard time sharing, it's nice to know that there is always someone there for you whenever you need them. I think this is probably one of the biggest benefits when children are little.

♥ Being left out
It's a/was a very prevalent feature of our family for many of years, especially around the teenage years and still a problem now to an extent. The trouble with having so many children is that someone will be left out. Not everyone can be given the same attention and so it causes a LOT of tension in the house when one person feels like they are forgotten about which results in feeling unloved or uncared about. I can say this now, hand on my heart, every single one of us children in my family have felt that; whether it was 5 years ago, last year, last month or even last week. It's a fact of life; not everyone can be equal at the same time.


♥ They become your friends
This is going to sound cheesy and perhaps this only works because my siblings and I are all only a year apart so our age differences are very limited but the older we got, the closer we got. To the point that nowadays, I feel like my siblings are some of my best friends. We spend time together, go to the cinema, go out drinking and we actively choose to be around one another. There's a hairy part in growing up between the "never lonely" stage and the "becoming friends" stage where having so many siblings is such a pain and you want your own space to sculpture your own identity- it's not all fun and games.

These are just three of the many positives/negatives of having a big family and I could go on but whilst I know this blog would end up being a foot long if I did. The fact is that sometimes money is scarce, attention to each child is limited, parents have a stressful/difficult time raising children but isn't that with every family? If you can afford children, and have enough love and want for a big family- the positives outweigh the negatives. It's when parents have babies and don't look after all their children leaving their older children to take care of the younger ones.

My Mum was a machine when she brought us up; and I don't feel like she left my elder siblings to look after the younger ones beyond the occasional babysitting and even then I vividly remember my Nan being the main person to babysit us. Perhaps I have a warped idea of my childhood but I don't feel like having a big family was detrimental to me in anyway. It was a tough time to find who I was aside from the generic identity of the family but it's made me who I am today. Being in a big family made me stronger in the sense of being heard and understanding that I can't be centre of attention.

I think I'm much more laid back and chilled because of the fact I don't need to be centre of attention, but I do like to be ;)


xxx