Drawbacks of having LOTS of Kids

[KUJustin]

Can anyone link me to some research/data about the drawbacks of having lots of kids (or positives?).

I mean anecdotal evidence and/or common sense assumptions are good, but some hard facts would be interesting. I hope this isn't considered googletarding but I'm not really sure how to look this one up.

[pokergrader]

They seem expensive.

[superadvisor]

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They seem expensive.

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Yeah but the older ones can take care of the younger ones, just make money to pay for food and stuff and then put them to work cleaning the house etc, that's a pretty sweet gig in my opinion.

[seemorenuts]

Seriously, there was a Scientific American article about 20 years ago about how Asian families thrived with lots of kids because they'd teach the eldest to tutor the younger kids.

Google it.

Highest current record I've met in person is this Portuguese man who's about 30 who has 11 kids with one woman. They live in a three bedroom apartment and I swear, his closet (that you can't even walk into, 18" deep) houses his computer because he enjoys video games. Lol. He seems pretty happy.

[traz]

You're going to overpopulate the planet and we're all going to die. Small family please

[solids]

Apparently you've never seen 'Cheaper by the Dozen'.

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
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They seem expensive.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah but the older ones can take care of the younger ones, just make money to pay for food and stuff and then put them to work cleaning the house etc, that's a pretty sweet gig in my opinion.

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Train 'em right and they can basically do all the housework so you don't have to lift a finger. That's pretty much being a dick, though.

[NT!]

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I hope this isn't considered googletarding

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Google search 1

Google search 2

pretty easy to at least get started, then post ideas or responses to what's out there

[MrWookie]

In an agricultural society, having lots of kids means more free labor to work the farm. They actually make you more money and more prosperous, so people tended to have lots of kids. Nowadays, kids just suck up money until they finally graduate from college. They won't even start to earn their own spending money until 16 or so, and it's not like it'll be going towards their food, clothing, health care, or whatever. In contrast, my dad was driving a tractor at around age 5. When there's actually a financial incentive for having lots of kids, people will have more kids, but in today's society, kids are practically a luxury item that people love dearly. They're much more likely to stop at 1 or 2.

[econophile]

economists often refer to the decision of how many children to have as a quality/quanity tradeoff