21 Kids and Counting.

Your posts are poison Gabriella and instead of us being told not to read them why don’t you stop posting you must be a VERY VERY bitter nasty person to be so incredibly uncaring and indeed vitriolic about those worse off than yourself
Do everyone a favour and think before you write

Imagine if there was a family fall out?
DS2 said to DD12s DH that DS9s ex MIL...

I need to find an incontinence pad MissA, I'm laughing so much

Seriously, I don't see the child benefit as an issue.
I can't think of many more worthwhile causes than a benefit that is meant solely to benefit a child.

I don't see the child benefit as an issue either.

I'm quite glad I never watched it.
I just wouldn't be able to fathom why on earth someone would want that many children, and it would taint my opinion.

What's wrong with that comment oldbatty ?

I think folk should mind their own business about how many children people have . This family being no exception. They're not harming anyone are they ? They're a lovely and loving family, something that they obviously missed out on when adopted as adoption leaves its mark in some way and I defy anyone who says it doesn't.
In this case, what better to be surrounded by children and love ?

Can somebody let me know what UK Government policy is on child benefit there days? I had an idea it was only paid for the first 2 children.

As comments go, this one is pretty unacceptable too:
The parents are ill The parents are ill. She was groomed from an early age.

Now, I'm not saying it is right that she first got pregnant at 13 by an 18 year old (*maryeliza*, I'm not sure if there can be a charge of statutory rape if no-one complains - does anyone know?) but they stayed together then and continue to do so.
Both being adopted perhaps meant they were both looking for love and they have found it.
I didn't see the programme and can't comment on whether or not he dominates and controls her - does she seem unhappy?

Ignore first bit of copy and paste of oldbatty's comment, I don't know what happened there.

I don't think having a baby at 13 is a good thing. Nor do I think going onto have 20 plus more is a good thing.

But they do and that is their choice

although I do agree with you that starting a family at 13 is not a good thing. However, he didn't abandon her.

Saying they are ill is not acceptable though.

It's ridiculous to say it's none of our business. They are now reality TV stars, just the same as people who go on Love Island or I'm A Celebrity etc. They have made themselves 'entertainment.' If nobody showed any interest and didn't watch the Channel 4 documentaries about them they would definitely struggle financially.

I don't hold with making unkind comments about them but it's not unfair to comment.

Thanks to those of you who have explained about child benefit
EthelJ I don't think the fourth child would suffer if the mother got child benefit only for the first three as presumably the money she got each week would be used for all the children.
Jalima 1108,I take your point about the children contributing by paying tax when they are older "if " they are working but there is a heck of a lot of money has been paid out to this family each month already .
I don't know anything about this particular family apart from the fact that the father does presumably work very hard in a bakery and that they have 21 children..
If a couple have two children and each child has two children in the next generation there would be four children.
If each child of this particular family decided to follow their parents ' example there would be 441 children.
OK that is very very unlikely but even if they decided only to have an average of five children each it still brings the number to .over 100
I presume this programme was on recently.
I remember watching a programme some time ago when the mother had I think 18 children and her eldest daughter was getting married.
I think she was pregnant (the daughter)
I ought to watch the programme to find out how many of the children would have preferred to be part of a smaller family.
I would have hated being one of a very. large family however rich we were

While it is true that we can choose not to read certain posts there is a certain fascination in discovering how the ‘other half live’ - not talking about ‘class’ but people we are generally unlikely to come across in our daily life (or if we do we can walk away or show them the door).

There used to be a programme on called 'The Family' which just filmed a normal, everyday family constantly.
Watching the way other people live their normal lives is always something of a revelation.

EllenVannin yes they are harming other people. The problems this planet has arise from its growing population and that needs to be reduced. The best, although slowest way is for each individual to decide to not have more children than are needed to replace themsleves. Balanced with those who choose or do not have children the numbers will slowly come down. Overall planet benefit comes from each individual making a decision commensurate with the problem.

If other's were to follow their example, humans would soon kill themselves off by overpopulation. It is our children's and grandchildren's (and theirs) they are putting at risk.

I think the title '.... and counting' indicates what the programme is really about - how many more kids will theses freaks have? I don't watch because I don't see anything admirable or interesting about having loads of kids, particularly in the circumstances when the mother was underage at the start.

For those saying 'It's their choice, don't criticise them' - obviously it's their choice, why do Channel 4 think it's of interest to anyone else? Obviously it must be, as people watch it. But then I don't watch programmes about people buying expensive houses in the country, either.

M0nica there are women having babies every day or is this just about the 21 that this woman happened to have had. ?

Each town has a hospital producing at least 4,500 babies every year so what do you propose doing about these thousands of babies as compared to one woman who happens to have had 21 ?
Neither you nor anyone else can stop this from happening. Even China has bent the rules after years of dictating the size of a family when they found that unwanted babies were being found abandoned or dead-----which is what happens when your rules are put in place.

This thread shows just how many posters on Gransnet are thoroughly nasty and opinionated individuals.
However it is still a free country (the last time I looked) therefore everyone is entitled to have an opinion. Just try and remain civil and keep out the nastiness when posting!

One day, when these children are adults and presumably, like their father, working, then they will be paying tax which will pay our State Pensions (if we're still around).
Well said, Jalima1108.
I wouldn't put my kids on tv because I value my privacy a little more than they obviously do but to complain about their Child Benefit seems somewhat churlish. They have been brought up with a work ethic and will contribute far more to society than the people who sit on benefits and give birth to a child as soon as the child is old enough so they have to work. Once they can't have any more children, suddenly they get an illness nobody can dispute and have to go onto ESA. Their children generally grow up to do exactly the same. I've watched it happen in so many families. I'd sooner have 10 of the televised family than 10 of the other leeches.
As for not having enough love to go round, they get more love from siblings which will balance it out somewhat. Singletons are often lonely, some 2 children families have siblings who hate one another, 3 children families often have 1 child who feels left out, etc. Most families have something they could complain about, this family appears to have many good things to balance out the complaints.
As for televising this, I'd sooner watch them than the wretched Katie Price who is a car crash or the Kadashians who are just spoiled brats.

I'd sooner watch families like this than those who only have one or two children only to find that they " can't cope or won't !"
This is what families are all about ! I applaud them for setting the example of unity and love in a family.

Latest news has stated that 13 families divorced on Christmas Day and dozens more are due at solicitors offices with the same view of " giving up !"
How many poor children now have to suffer being separated from one, possibly both parents ?

This to me is more obscene and cruel than a loving family lovingly producing all these children who will live by the example of their loving parents .

As an only child, I've always had a fascination with large families and have chanced on this programme previously, and find it interesting to see how they manage. It's filmed over some months and heavily edited, so we mostly only see when things are going OK, though there was one bit when they had just arrived in Spain when things obviously got a bit fraught - just like even in small families!

When I was a child, my mother used to bring me to a market and I enjoyed chatting to the market traders - they found me a bit of a novelty as an "only", unusual in 50s Ireland. I would often ask them how many children they had - some had 18, of whom only 8 were alive.

As far as one large family's effect on population increase is concerned - it's actually infinitesimal, when divided by total number of women and babies born. Very few people are going to follow the Radford's example. In fact fertility rates in all European countries are below "replenishment level"