• Welcome to BookAndReader!

    We LOVE books and hope you'll join us in sharing your favorites and experiences along with your love of reading with our community. Registering for our site is free and easy, just CLICK HERE!

    Already a member and forgot your password? Click here.

"Mom delivers 16th child" - Is there something wrong with this?

Motokid said:
"Jim Bob Duggar, who sells real estate, previously lost his bid for the U.S. Senate. He said he expects to run for the state Senate next year but isn't ready to make a formal announcement."

How much time can Dad be spending at home with the children if he's a real estate salesman and he's running for U.S. Senate, and he has to provide for building this new house, while also providing for himself and 17 other people?

Unless this guy is making some astronomical salary I just don't see how Dad can be around much in his kids lives....
Click to expand...


It is an obsticle for all loving dads, regardless of the number of kids. I know it is for my dh. He tries to get them involved in his projects when he can. When he built our house, he had the oldest girls come out and "help" when he could. He still brags about their help with the siding.. and when he built the chicken house and doghouse, he had the kids help-even though he could have done the work much faster by himself. Same with the bookshelves. I forgot how old the oldest kids are in this article, teens can go with dad on real estate jaunts to learn the ropes. There's a lot of people into real estate investing. They usually buy fixer-uppers, and make improvements themselves, then either rent or re-sell them. The kids can learn a trade while helping fix those houses. When we had our basement poured, the finisher was a homeschool dad with 12 kids..some of his teens came and worked right alongside him. I know he was teaching them to make a living for themselves. We rotate taking different kids on errands, allowing time to just hang out. So there ARE ways to work out this issue of quality time with the parents..it just requires creativity and determination.
 
There's a difference between working with the kids....and working away from the kids....selling real estate and running for public office has to take up most of his time....I'm just guessing, but I know I'd never be able to do anything but work to afford 8 times the kids I have now....
 
Don't know if it was mentioned in the China article posted earlier but the One Child Policy isn't strictly a one child policy. Rural Chinese are permitted two children if the first child is a female. The idea is to try and have a son who will carry on the farm, etc.
The problem here is that more males are being born in rural communities than in urban communities and the only way these males are going to get married to carry on the family name is to move to the city, take low paid jobs, and try and meet a woman for marriage. Unfortunately, being on the lower ladders of society in the cities the women there don't want to know them. The city women are better educated and are of more independent means and will, most likely, marry a city boy. It just leaves the rural men to return to the country and hope they've made enough from the city to marry a rural woman.
 
Just as a rough guesstimate, what would you think a yearly income would need to be to sufficiently care for a family of 16 children and two adults?

I can't image doing this for anything less than $150,000 a year...and probably more like $200,000 a year.....

I mean, there's really no way it could be done for $75,000 could it?

What could food alone cost for one week? $400.00 ?????
That's over $20,000 a year just in food.

This really blows my mind.....I want to know way more about these people.
 
I can't tell you how much it takes..but I'd love to have a $75,000 yearly income...we're in the middle somewhere between $55,000 to $65, 000 range. All I can say is people tend to afford the things they really want to. We don't go on big vacations, and we don't have a boat, or any vehicles we bought new. Dh and I usually go out every two weeks for a nice dinner away, but in between we try to go on micro-mini dates to the store or somesuch. We don't go to many movies, since it irks us to pay bigscreen prices for most new releases. Rentals are more our style, but we're choosy about those too. We wear lots of pre-owned clothing, specially thanks to those anonymous drive-by clothing drops, and planned visits to various resale shops. The kids have picked up on the adventure of all that.. and laugh at their friends and cousins who "have" to have some famous designer logo on their butts in order to feel cool. Just a few weeks ago, most of us packed up and drove 30 miles to go to a big model rocket launch..that was free except for the munchies and the gas. We do spend a lot on groceries...but I am well aware that that is the one area where I can have the most control..So, there are ways to get by on less than $150, 000.. but sometimes it would be nice to have Donald Trump's checkbook for an afternoon...:D

As I'm writing this, one of my dds is telling me all the stuff we could do with Trump's checkbook..since I only asked for an afternoon, I could send the four oldest out with separate checks..one to the bookstore, one to the grocerystore, one to buy clothes, and another to the appliance store...and me to the computer store...:cool:
 
The story says they are having a 7000 square foot home built...that's gotta cost at least $500,000 doesn't it???? Custom built with 9 bathrooms and 4 laundries....in my area that's a millon dollar home at least. To mortgage $500k for 30 years at current rates that's a bit over $3k a month which is over $36,000 a year.

edit: and don't forget Abecedarian...they have your entire family plus half more

(you have 10 kids right????)
 
Kenny Shovel said:
I would have thought this was a tradition in many cultures around the world.
Click to expand...

I thought this is the best comment, and nobody picked up on it. The family wouldn't be an issue in many places on the earth. India, the African Continent, South America, and many other places.
 
abecedarian said:
I can't tell you how much it takes..but I'd love to have a $75,000 yearly income...we're in the middle somewhere between $55,000 to $65, 000 range. All I can say is people tend to afford the things they really want to.
Click to expand...

That is the same here. We're making it on the $25,000 to $30,000 a year my hubby makes. It is all a matter of priorities. I drive a 16 year old van we bought from hubby's sister, hubby drives a 10 year old truck, also bought second hand. Most of the kids clothes are hand-me-downs from relatives and anything new is usually bought from Wal-Mart. I almost exclusively shop resale stores and clearance racks at Wal-Mart. I only buy one big brand name item for myself, and that is shoes. I have to have good shoes or I hurt. And I even buy those on clearance. We do go on dates every other week or so, too (that's cheaper than a divorce lawyer!).


Moto, the article states that the home has been under construction for two yerars. Apparently, they aren't going by the usual contractor/mortgage route, so I think your estimates of home cost could be significantly off.
 
cajunmama said:
Apparently, they aren't going by the usual contractor/mortgage route, so I think your estimates of home cost could be significantly off.
Click to expand...

Which is why I said in one post or another that I'd love to know more about this family....And don't forget Cajunmama...they've got 4 times the number of kids you have.....with teenagers....driving...insurance.....the cost of kids is huge and sometimes grows as fast as they do.....
 
And take into account that many teens have part-time jobs and they may be paying for some of their own expenses.
 
and you are assuming the teens drive..I know people who won't license their kids until they are able to pay for the insurance. The first dd who got a car earned the $900 for it herself, and bought it from a friend who took care of it. The next one came from a co-worker of my hubby-its an older Mitsubishi and was just $1000..dd#3 had an older Olds Cutlass given to her by someone leaving for Russia..Throw in our 12 year old toyota truck and our '97 15 passenger van, and our place looks like a used car lot! Insurance is a killer and we are planning to look for a new company..

Besides, if they live close enough, those kids could ride bikes or walk to a job..I know a guy in town who bicyles to work whenever the weather is nice, but he lives and works in town, so it's more feasible.
 
StillILearn said:
Do they all want their own computers?

:D
Click to expand...


computers can be had cheap if someone knows how to fix up the ones people will give away..we have three like this right now. And I thought my hubby was certififiable when he brought home that first Mac 512 in a box...
 
I would assume with a father who works, and is running for public office, and a mother who is perpetually pregnant and/or with at least one nipple in a childs mouth at any and every moment of the day, that at least one other person in that family has to have a license to drive.....:D
 
Wabbit said:
I thought this is the best comment, and nobody picked up on it. The family wouldn't be an issue in many places on the earth. India, the African Continent, South America, and many other places.
Click to expand...

I think that lack of birth controlm particularly in "developing countries", is probably a reason they are "developing countries" in the first place-all the family's resources goes to feeding the multitude of mouths. Plus many poor countries don't have free education (or the quality of education is poor, or the children are needed to work at home or to help support the family), so it's not as if the children grow up, go to school for 12 years, go to college and get higher-paying jobs than their parents.
 
WoundedThorns said:
i agree with what you're saying.


i wonder, is it really that difficult to keep a box of condoms around?
Click to expand...


It isn't a problem until the kids get old enough to reckognize water balloons when they see them;)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top