[rpmisms]

So far the four of us who have turned 18 are doing great for ourselves, so it turned out pretty well. No neglect, great food, and an excellent education.

Are you saying some of us should have been put in the notoriously abusive foster care system instead of having a great family?

[HWR_14]

You mentioned education, and I assume you attended public schools, because 10 tuitions sound like a lot (and homeschooling sounds impossible). I'm amazed your parents were able to afford to feed you well, but good for them.

But how on earth were you supervised. I guess one parent must have been stay-at-home. Which means the other had to earn an income for the whole dozen of you? Did you ever see that parent (seriously, did they have to work 80+ hrs a week?)

> Are you saying some of us should have been put in the notoriously abusive foster care system

I think if you have 10 kids, then someone checking in to make sure that the kids are being fed, supervised, educated becomes a thing that probably needs to happen. If your parents were able to pull it off, great. I just doubt many parents could.

[rpmisms]

Nope, homeschooled 100%. I did go to community college when I was 13, I guess. Lots of books (4000 in our home library), Khan Academy, and no personal electronics for the kids.

>But how on earth were you supervised. I guess one parent must have been stay-at-home.

Mom still is, and she's good at it. The real answer is that it's not any more effort past 6 or so kids. I've been taking care of kids my entire life, essentially, and it really does become self-sustaining. Turns out tweens and young teens are great at taking care of babies. There's a picture somewhere of 10-year-old me wearing my new baby sister in a carrier.

Dad's a principal engineer, he's been remote for a long time, we saw him plenty. (he's also somewhat active here, Hi Dad!)

As long as you don't spend money on things like TV, and buy in bulk to cook at home, it's really not too expensive. We'd spend about $1300 a month in groceries.

> I think if you have 10 kids, then someone checking in to make sure that the kids are being fed, supervised, educated becomes a thing that probably needs to happen.

Where's the threshold for the state examining their anuses because obviously something must be wrong here?

We did have CPS called a couple times, once because I was doing my college coursework at 14 sitting on the patio roof. I hopped down, we sat around and listened to the spiel, then I politely asked them if they could fuck off because my Sociology 204 class was about to happen.

We also scored at the top of our (good) school district in standardized testing. Like, all of us were the top score in our grade.

[warent]

My understanding is that it is pretty common and not mysterious at all that as children get older they start to look after each other. Being the youngest of 4 kids, the older ones often watched over me.