swamp
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Post by swamp on Jan 23, 2014 13:38:36 GMT -5
::I can't build my own computer or restore my own vehicle. Why would I require my kids to do it? :: This guy made his kids do things which aligned with his skillset. He was an engineer. I'm in the financial field, it would like me saying by the time my kids were 3 they had their own budget and balanced their own books. Yes I'm making my kids do it, but it's within a space that I can teach them and help them out. He taught the kids to cook by telling them to read a recipe and apply math to double it. His personal skillset kind of happens to align with stuff that sounds more difficult for most of us. I don't expect my kids to know how to try a felony by the time they are 18.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jan 23, 2014 13:39:43 GMT -5
there was probably little to no extracurriculars. You can't really have Bobby, Suzy, and Mikey doing soccer/softball/whatever if they are essentially raising their younger siblings... I would have hated to be an older child in a huge family - it seems like you basically have no childhood. Says they were required one sport and one club. Hell, when I did basketball that was at least 3 nights a week between games/practice. Sometimes more. When I did plays it started out 3 nights a week until the last two weeks or so it was every night M-F and then the last week we were there from when school let out til 11pm with a break for dinner.
Don't see how 12 kids could do that and always have dinner at 530, and study from 6-8.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Jan 23, 2014 13:40:04 GMT -5
::And how much can you get done from 8 to bedtime when 12 people have to bathe, brush teeth, have story time, and all the other crap that goes along with putting little kids to bed. ::
Maybe they bathe in the morning when they're getting up at 5am. Story time is easy. Assign one older kid to parent one younger kid.
::there was probably little to no extracurriculars. You can't really have Bobby, Suzy, and Mikey doing soccer/softball/whatever if they are essentially raising their younger siblings...::
According to the article, each kid had to be involved in an extracurricular (like a sport) as well as a "club" of some kind.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Jan 23, 2014 13:40:05 GMT -5
there was probably little to no extracurriculars. You can't really have Bobby, Suzy, and Mikey doing soccer/softball/whatever if they are essentially raising their younger siblings... I would have hated to be an older child in a huge family - it seems like you basically have no childhood. No..not according to this guy. The kids were required to do one sport, one club and community service, and be done by 5 every day.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 13:40:29 GMT -5
Why are there never "normal" stories, why are there always those extremes?? I want to know how "regular" people accomplish things. I didn't think there was TOO much extreme here. Mostly the cars and computer things are the outliers. I think a lot of us were made to help around the house in general. And some of it, frankly, I don't believe is true. Particularly that EVERY night from 6-8 pm was study time. And that after that they could do "anything" as long as they were home by curfew. Requiring kids to be in clubs and extracurriculars makes it probably impossible that all kids were home between 6-8pm every night. Yeah, I don't know how you can do it either. My son is in just scouts and swimming lessons. Scouts is Monday night from 7-8:30 and he's often not home until 9 and swimming lessons are Tuesday/Thursday from 6:30 to 7. I don't know when else you can schedule stuff like this.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 13:41:22 GMT -5
there was probably little to no extracurriculars. You can't really have Bobby, Suzy, and Mikey doing soccer/softball/whatever if they are essentially raising their younger siblings... I would have hated to be an older child in a huge family - it seems like you basically have no childhood. But the article said every child had to be in a sport and every child had to be in a club, like Boy Scouts or History club.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jan 23, 2014 13:43:10 GMT -5
Even if it's HS sports, you often aren't home by 5:30. By the time practice went from 3 to 5, I got dressed, and walked home, it would be 5:45. And game or meet day wouldn't get you home until 9:00 some nights.
And as for the snacking thing, if you told the 16 year old me I could not have a snack after school and before sports practice, I would cut you.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Jan 23, 2014 13:43:46 GMT -5
And how much can you get done from 8 to bedtime when 12 people have to bathe, brush teeth, have story time, and all the other crap that goes along with putting little kids to bed. If we had 12 kids, the kids under 5 would be put on a bathing schedule, much like their laundry schedule. We never bathed our little ones every night. I would like to hear from the mom though. With our three, we had one crap sleeper. I wonder how she dealt with 4 crap sleepers at a time on top of breastfeeding ...
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jan 23, 2014 13:45:28 GMT -5
And how much can you get done from 8 to bedtime when 12 people have to bathe, brush teeth, have story time, and all the other crap that goes along with putting little kids to bed. If we had 12 kids, the kids under 5 would be put on a bathing schedule, much like their laundry schedule. We never bathed our little ones every night. I would like to hear from the mom though. With our three, we had one crap sleeper. I wonder how she dealt with 4 crap sleepers at a time on top of breastfeeding ... I think the older girls breastfed them.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 13:46:01 GMT -5
then this guy is lying or is remembering incorrectly. As others said, you can't do all that and be done by 5.
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Jan 23, 2014 13:46:08 GMT -5
And how much can you get done from 8 to bedtime when 12 people have to bathe, brush teeth, have story time, and all the other crap that goes along with putting little kids to bed. If we had 12 kids, the kids under 5 would be put on a bathing schedule, much like their laundry schedule. We never bathed our little ones every night. I would like to hear from the mom though. With our three, we had one crap sleeper. I wonder how she dealt with 4 crap sleepers at a time on top of breastfeeding ...Well, the article does not mention whether or not she had a drinking habit.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 13:48:41 GMT -5
if I had 12 kids I'd have a murdering (and neutering) habit.
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milee
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Post by milee on Jan 23, 2014 13:48:51 GMT -5
obviously the guy worked hard. I'd like to know what his wife's take on it is............... No joke. An example was when he was describing how the family would camp, it really meant he and the older kids would go off on a hike and adventure while the wife stayed at the base camp prepping the food and taking care of the little kids. We're all different, but that would be my idea of Hell - the only adult in a camp full of little kids just making food and waiting for the others to return.
Again, it sounds like they had a cohesive family unit so she was on board with it, so worked for them.
Reading between the lines, I'm guessing this family is Mormon. If so, in most cases it wouldn't matter what the wife wanted or felt - the man is the head of the household.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jan 23, 2014 13:48:54 GMT -5
The comments brought up an interesting point - how the car he mentioned didn't come with 450HP like he claims, and someone mentioned that building an engine from scratch that had that much would have been several thousands dollars (guy said $8k+). Now that I think about it, that kind of HP was only on really fancy sports cars and not cheap to come by. If it truly had 450HP, not sure how spending $10k+ on a car your kid built is that much better than spending $6k outright on one that already runs.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Jan 23, 2014 13:49:46 GMT -5
Even if it's HS sports, you often aren't home by 5:30. By the time practice went from 3 to 5, I got dressed, and walked home, it would be 5:45. And game or meet day wouldn't get you home until 9:00 some nights.
And as for the snacking thing, if you told the 16 year old me I could not have a snack after school and before sports practice, I would cut you. My high school students on football and baseball teams practice from 4 until 7. M-F. And, the practice on Saturday, too. Now, it does help that DH works part time. We usually get our kids in classes at like 4pm. I hold our den meetings right after school, on the early release days. So, by 3:30, boys are done with cub scouts.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Jan 23, 2014 13:50:09 GMT -5
::If we had 12 kids, the kids under 5 would be put on a bathing schedule, much like their laundry schedule. We never bathed our little ones every night. ::
If you assume 12 kids over 15 years like he said, you've got about 4 who aren't in school and can bathe on a schedule. Another 4 who are in school but probably young enough to go every other day. 4 older and every day.
4 older shower in the mornings because they're up at freaking 5am.
4 middle go at night after study time on an alternating schedule of 2 per night.
4 youngest go 3 times per week. 1 of those on the weekends. Then pair up 2 each to share a bath time twice per week.
Each morning you have 4 showers spread out over 2-3 hours, each night you have 3 baths/showers spread out over 2 hours.
This also assumes no kids had morning practices where they roll out of bed, go to practice, then shower at school. Or that none of them did what I did, which was to have a 1st period gym class, go without showering, then shower after gym class.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jan 23, 2014 13:51:03 GMT -5
The comments brought up an interesting point - how the car he mentioned didn't come with 450HP like he claims, and someone mentioned that building an engine from scratch that had that much would have been several thousands dollars (guy said $8k+). Now that I think about it, that kind of HP was only on really fancy sports cars and not cheap to come by. If it truly had 450HP, not sure how spending $10k+ on a car your kid built is that much better than spending $6k outright on one that already runs. and doesn't have a stupid large engine that a 16 year old may or may not have the experience and know how to handle..........
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Sum Dum Gai
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Post by Sum Dum Gai on Jan 23, 2014 13:51:35 GMT -5
It might be possible if they all did rec sports. Our county rec department sport's leagues are much less competitive than the other local leagues, practice less, have fewer games, shorter seasons, and they're way cheaper. They're way less competitive though. For baseball/softball they do t-ball up to like age 8, coach toss until 10 or so, then use a pitching machine after that.
The local baseball/softball leagues outside the rec department are modified kid pitch starting at the 7-8 year old division. The kids pitch, but instead of walking batters the opposing coach gets to come in and toss however many strikes remain in the count. From about 10 up it's regular baseball/softball with walks.
The rec basketball program requires equal play time for every kid on the team at every age division. The local basketball leagues other than rec require some play time for every kid, but not equal play time.
Etc., etc.
The kids who are serious about their sport don't play rec. The kids who get picked last in gym but have parents that require a sport every season play rec.
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Jan 23, 2014 13:53:49 GMT -5
if I had 12 kids I'd have a murdering (and neutering) habit. And your boobs would be dragging on the floor.
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Jan 23, 2014 13:54:20 GMT -5
then this guy is lying or is remembering incorrectly. As others said, you can't do all that and be done by 5. My first thought was that they probably had a rule that 6-8 was study time and that there indeed was no tv, etc. But is forgetting that out of 12 kids, they "only" had 8-9 there each night studying. Like "if you were home it's study time", but it wasn't presented that way really. Same for "there was no snacking"...ummm your older kids were at school all day and did what they wanted from 8-10...who says they didn't snack?
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NomoreDramaQ1015
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Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jan 23, 2014 13:54:37 GMT -5
I'm confused on how this translates into him patting himself on the back about college. Unless all the things he required lead to a ton of scholarships and/or free rides. No where in the article does it mention how his parenting list specfically translated into not paying for college. In facts he states that from day one he had no intentions of paying for anything. So what does making your kids build their own computer have to do with not paying for college when you never intended to pay no matter what they did?
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hoops902
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Post by hoops902 on Jan 23, 2014 13:56:36 GMT -5
::So what does making your kids build their own computer have to do with not paying for college when you never intended to pay no matter what they did?::
He made them earn things, therefore they all earned their college expenses by being taught to be independent?
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Jan 23, 2014 13:56:57 GMT -5
Ok, my question is, how did the kids get enough sleep at night? If they have to be up at 5am, just assuming 8hrs of sleep - and most kids need more like 9-10, has kids in bed at 9pm. 10 hrs cuts into the homework time.
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swamp
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Post by swamp on Jan 23, 2014 13:58:41 GMT -5
Ok, my question is, how did the kids get enough sleep at night? If they have to be up at 5pm, just assuming 8hrs of sleep - and most kids need more like 9-10, has kids in bed at 9pm. 10 hrs cuts into the homework time.
They're such good parents that their kids don't need as much sleep.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 13:58:41 GMT -5
I think that he believes that is how it was. I'll bet his wife would tell a different story....and the truth would be somewhere in between.
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muttleynfelix
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Post by muttleynfelix on Jan 23, 2014 13:59:35 GMT -5
I'm confused on how this translates into him patting himself on the back about college. Unless all the things he required lead to a ton of scholarships and/or free rides.
My guess is that all the clubs, sports, # of kids, AP classes, etc that the kids got a bunch of scholarships.
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giramomma
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Post by giramomma on Jan 23, 2014 13:59:50 GMT -5
This is also clearly written in a time where the use of technology wasn't required for completing homework.
And, for kids taking all advanced/AP courses, there's no getting homework done in 2 hours.
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milee
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Post by milee on Jan 23, 2014 14:00:33 GMT -5
Again, if they're Mormon and live within a reasonably close distance to church and school, the clubs and sports are doable because both the church and school are likely to have a large number of on-site after school programs to serve the local families.
Also, depending on when these kids were growing up it could have been different as well. My kids go to the same school in the same town that I grew up in, but things are hugely different now. Back when I was in school, there were several after school clubs and sports teams either at the school or within walking distance. You'd only need a parent to do a pick up (and this family could do one pickup loop like a bus system). Now, there are few after school clubs that meet immediately after school and on campus. Sports are as likely to be in city wide leagues or rec centers as at school. There are very few offerings for either of my boys that don't involve me first collecting them after school and then driving them somewhere - which would be nearly impossible with 12 kids. So the system described would work in the past but not now, unless you paid someone to shuttle the kids around.
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Post by Deleted on Jan 23, 2014 14:00:34 GMT -5
I'm confused on how this translates into him patting himself on the back about college. Unless all the things he required lead to a ton of scholarships and/or free rides. No where in the article does it mention how his parenting list specfically translated into not paying for college. In facts he states that from day one he had no intentions of paying for anything. So what does making your kids build their own computer have to do with not paying for college when you never intended to pay no matter what they did? I'm guessing he's saying he made them all independent problem solvers prior to college and they figured it out on their own? Then the boost of AP classes and undoubtedly financial aid with that many. I would like to hear the individual stories of getting through though.
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justme
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Post by justme on Jan 23, 2014 14:00:52 GMT -5
Ok, my question is, how did the kids get enough sleep at night? If they have to be up at 5am, just assuming 8hrs of sleep - and most kids need more like 9-10, has kids in bed at 9pm. 10 hrs cuts into the homework time.
Which is different from the stated 10pm school night curfew and the 11pm weekend curfew.
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