Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar have just announced that they are expecting their 19th child.  The reality TV show family just welcomed their 18th child into the world a short 8 months ago and are expecting the birth of their first grandchild in in October.

Michelle, who is 42, says that she is tired and nauseous, but mentioned that tired an nauseous was pretty normal for the first trimester of pregnancy.  Michelle also homeschools all of the school aged children and has taught each child to play the violin.  Jim Bob, along with help from the rest of the family, built their new home.

For those of you who were wondering, along with me, the family figures that they have changed an estimated 90,000 diapers and that they do approximately 200 loads of laundry per month.  Michelle has not been pregnant for 147 months of her life which is only about 12 years.

The newest addition is expected to be born around March 18th.  The Duggar’s first grandchild, a baby girl, is due October 18th.

I have to admit that I am intrigued by large families?perhaps because we have 5 children. I had a rare opportunity to watch TV this evening and I saw a few minutes of Nanny 911. The family that was featured on this episode that aired tonight has?drum roll please?43 kids.

Jim Silcock and his wife Ann have been married for 11 years. During that time, they?ve adopted 43 boys, all of whom have special needs. I was astounded and humbled as I watched Ann care for all of these children and help her husband, who is paralyzed and in a wheelchair.

Each week, they spend around $800 on groceries alone and Annie does 40 loads of laundry a day. The family of 45 lives in a 9 bedroom, 5 bathroom house that has 2 stories and a residential elevator. New construction will add an additional 3 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, another living room, and an additional laundry. In order to make sure that all of the children are cared for, the Silcock family has several ?family helpers? who drive the children to activities and help the couple with daily tasks.

According to the information on their family website, the Silcock children have been adopted from all over the world. The couple has chosen to work with disabled boys because they feel that these children are harder to place in ?forever families?. They also are open about the fact that they haven?t ruled out adopting more children.

In addition to caring for their large family, Jim and Ann have started a non-profit organization called First Step Inc. The organization provides grants for disabled people so that they can participate in recreational activities in their communities.

As a mother of with 4 special needs children herself, I can vaguely grasp how difficult life must be for Ann and Jim. I just am finding it hard to come to terms with the reality of what life must be like with 43 children. The next time I get discouraged when my 5 are creating chaos in the house?.I think I?ll take a deep breath and think of Jim and Ann, and realize how good I have it.

I just saw an interesting article about one of the newest reality TV shows featuring…The Duggar Family.

You may or may not have heard of the Duggar Family. They have 17 children and mom is pregnant with her 18th child which is due in the next few months. Their children are home-schooled, they are very conservative, and are deeply religious.

As a mother of a large family myself, I am fascinated by how calm this mom appears to be all the time. Exactly how does she do that?

I have homeschooled my children and I can attest to the fact that it is not an easy job. I simply can not imagine homeschooling such a large brood. That in itself would be stressful to me!

I also have to admit wondering–exactly how do they afford to live and how are they able to be debt free as they claim to be? I’d love to hear about their budget strategies and tips. Balancing a budget is not easy for anyone these days; it’s especially hard when you have a large family.

I am also left to wonder: are they really for REAL? Do they really get along as well as what we are lead to believe? What do the kids REALLY think about having to wear the same outfit/uniform as their siblings? Does the mother ever lose her temper or is she always so calm and soft spoken?

I have to also confess that while I am fascinated by this family, I don’t think I am fascinated enough to tune in to the new reality show, although the very fact that such a show is being planned raises some serious questions for me. Why would you ever agree to have television crews and cameras in your home filming your life? If you are a private, conservative family, wouldn’t you just say no? I don’t get it. I also wonder what effect this show will have on their family and their children.

Do you personally watch reality TV shows such as John and Kate Plus 8? If so, will you tune into The Duggar Family reality show? If given the choice, which family would you rather spend time with and why?

Recently, I’ve found numerous articles about the new trend – you know, the large family ‘trend’. According to all the statistics, families with more than 2 children are increasing. Most of the articles site the 2004 study where 11 percent of US births in that year were to women who already had three children. This was up from 10 percent in 1995. Large families, it has been suggested, are the new status symbol.

Articles like these make me chuckle because I personally have five children. I am not a status symbol and I did not decide to have my children based upon current norms or because of what other people would think of me. In fact, after I crossed the ‘two child’ threshold, I noticed a distinct change in the attitudes of family and most of my friends when I’d announce subsequent pregnancies. What was I doing?

I love being a mom and I always wanted a big family. I never set out to have five children, it just sort of happened. As I look around me, I notice that yes, there are an ever increasing amount of large families, but most of those families, like ours, are blended families. ‘She’ has children and ‘he’ has children and then ‘they’ have a child of their own. If ’she’ has two, and ‘he’ has two, that’s four children right there! If ‘they’ have a child together, you have a family with five children.

Parenting a large brood is not for the faint hearted–even if you don’t factor in the obvious worries about the budge and the sheer amount of time and energy it takes to effectively parent a bunch of kids. Since we’ve moved to the southern USA, I don’t notice the distain and negative public sentiment directed towards mothers of large families that I noticed when we lived in the north. On any outing, it was almost a given that someone would approach me and spew some sort of negative comment at me. I actually had one ‘gentleman’ inform me that I needed to find myself a new hobby! I politely informed him that I was very happy with my hobby and saw no need to find a new one. It’s one thing for a journalist to define me as a status symbol. It’s another thing all together to be living that status out in real life. Having said this, would I change a thing about my life if I could do it all over again? Never. I consider myself blessed to be a mother of a large brood.

Are large families the new trend? A new status symbol? I would say no, there’s no ‘new’ trend and I know of no one who is thinking about having a large family because it’s fashionable. Absolutely no one. Instead, I would suggest that large families have never gone away – the media is just behind on the reality curve.