How big is Adelaide’s largest family, I wonder? | Lauren Novak

The average Aussie family these days has two or three kids. But this parent’s room encounter left me wondering just who could claim to have Adelaide’s largest, writes Lauren Novak.

When my second child was maybe nine months old, I found myself at one of those helpful parent rooms at our local shopping centre.

When the automatic door opened I was met with a room full of people – more accurately, young people.

It took me a moment to realise that the five children in front of me – ranging in age from what I guessed was about 12 down to a newborn – all appeared to belong to one mother.

Then I noticed there was a sixth child in the closed toilet cubicle.

The adult in the room (I realise I’m assuming she was their mother, but stay with me) seemed calm and in control.

When the kid in the cubicle was done, she gathered the brood and they filed out of the room leaving me and my baby boy standing in their wake.

The encounter ignited a strong mix feelings:

Surprise: I’ve not personally met many families in Adelaide with more than four kids.

Awe: As a second-time mum still in the throes of nappy changes and sleepless nights I have enormous respect for anyone who does it again and again … and again.

A hint of jealousy: I’m an only child (not by design) and have always romanticised having a whopper family of my own.

Cute Children Playing At Park, Lots of Fun

Now, I know I’m making a lot of assumptions about what I saw.

There are all kinds of family types and care arrangements.

Some of those kids could have been friends or cousins.

But it got me thinking. Not so long ago families with five or six children were common.

My parents – born in the 1950s – are both one of five.

In the early 1980s about one-third of Australian mothers in their late 40s had four or more children. By 2016 that proportion had dropped to 11 per cent.

These days one, two or three kids is more common – for myriad reasons in (or out) of parents’ control.

People are leaving baby-making until later (by choice, or not) and the ever-rising cost of living can make big-family budgeting a daunting prospect.

But those mega families are out there. I recently interviewed an Adelaide woman in her early 20s who is one of 14 siblings, the youngest aged about 2.

During my second pregnancy, I joined an online group where women from around Australia were posting about having their eighth, tenth or even – in one case – twelfth child.

Blog posts by mums of this many kids often lament the ‘gawk’ factor, where people stare at siblings piling out of a mini van or ask offensive questions like whether the parents ‘meant’ to have that many children.

Extra large families have long-been fodder for reality television shows like Sweet Home Sextuplets, which follows a family in the US state of Alabama who have nine children, or Outdaughtered, a Texan family with six girls – including a set of quintuplets.

So how big is Adelaide’s biggest family, I wonder?

How do they manage the logistics, the budget … the laundry?!

If you come from a seriously large brood, tell me, what’s life like at your place?

If you’d like to share your family’s story email [e-mail]