My thoughts on Big Families

I grew up in a huge family of eleven children, and I hated it. I always have, and everyone else does. I'm not against large families, because sometimes they can turn out to be good things, but I am definitely not for it.

Of course, I am speaking completely from my experience. I know that not all families operate the same way mine does. I am just saying why I think that being in a large family isn't always a good thing.

For one thing, in my family, no one actually treats each other like family. We all just kind of act like we're a bunch of roommates who just kind of have to deal with the situation until we move out and escape the group. I mean, I don't remember the dates of most of my siblings' birthdays because, to be completely honest, when it comes to large families, there's only so many that you can keep track of. I mean, some of them have been moved out my entire life, and I don't even think I've said four sentences to my oldest brother. I know little to nothing about most of their interests or even their ages. It's always so much to keep track of on top of everybody elses. We hardly ever wish each other happy birthdays either because we forgot, or we didn't care about that particular sibling. It's sad, really. I have no idea how real families work because mine never treated each other special. Most of us have friends who are treated more like family than my actual family. 

Another thing: it has ruined basically everyone's lives. My mom parented the first few kids, waited for them to grow up, then let them raise the next batch, let them grow up, then let that batch raise the next one. Even SHE can't keep track of us. She has no idea about most of the things we do, or people we know. Nobody really cares about anyone in our family. We all have our little groups, where people do get along, but I'm not part of any of them. It's basically like eleven random people are stuck in a room and have to try to act like they are family. I wish I could see how a real family worked, since I do try to write quite a bit of fiction, but all of the families I write about are just like mine, and then when people online read some of my material, they complain that the family environment is far too unrealistic. I feel like I've been deprived of a lot of valuable memories and feelings by being in a large family.