I've never seen or heard of a child being raised in a family that large that didn't have some fairly serious mental health issues. It's impossible for parents to pay enough attention to each child under circumstances like that.
Mike is the oldest (by 7 years) of 5, and he suffered for it, even just with that small a number. His mom was always either pregnant or recovering from a pregnancy and his dad was always working to try to support them, so he became the de facto parent for the rest of the kids. The same happens in other large families, and often older children go to work to support the younger ones, too. Children shouldn't be forced to have to parent their siblings when they themselves aren't even done growing up. They lose a sense of identity, of individualism, of their own needs mattering, and it leads to a lot of problems forming healthy relationships later on. It takes away the childhood from those children. I think it's abusive.
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momijizukamori
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Date: 2004-04-08 11:55 am (UTC)Mike is the oldest (by 7 years) of 5, and he suffered for it, even just with that small a number. His mom was always either pregnant or recovering from a pregnancy and his dad was always working to try to support them, so he became the de facto parent for the rest of the kids. The same happens in other large families, and often older children go to work to support the younger ones, too. Children shouldn't be forced to have to parent their siblings when they themselves aren't even done growing up. They lose a sense of identity, of individualism, of their own needs mattering, and it leads to a lot of problems forming healthy relationships later on. It takes away the childhood from those children. I think it's abusive.