did anyone here ever grow up in a duggar-like family?

[LeftWingPunk]

OK, Obviously no one grew up with 18 siblings but did anyone here grow up in a stereotypical christian household. By that I mean were you homeschooled, did you have 4+ siblings, was your dad a pastor etc?
The reason I'm asking is because it always seemed that the kids in families like that always followed in their parent's footsteps. But were any of you the "black sheep" in the family that did things the opposite of how your parents wanted?

[Arctic Dave]

1. There was a mormon family that lived down the road from us

that had 10 or 11 kids. A few of them are part of the teabagger militia crowd, while a few of them got the F out and are fairly well adjusted to life.

[Turbineguy]

2. One of my colleagues married

a nymphomaniac.

They have lots of kids and he's happy.

I don't think that answers your question though.

[mzteris]

3. I know lots of "Christians" who never homeschooled -

and lots of atheists and pagans who did . . .

Just so's you know!

[LeftWingPunk]

5. ok i guess i generalized a little much

so I'll restate it: did any of you guys grow up in a conservative religious household? It's nice to see stories of people who "got out safely" so to speak.

[Extend a Hand]

9. I grew up in a conservative religious household

of the fanatical southern baptist variety that followed Dobson (only 2 kids though and I was adopted). I ran away at 13,14,15 (after being declared ungovernable and sent to reform school) and then finally after running away from an aunt and perv uncle at 16 I was emancipated by a judge. Moved in with a drug addict, finished high school, went to college got a degree in C.S. Divorced after 11 years. Married a co-worker and have been happily married for 19 years.

[mzteris]

13. hm - religious household -

Well, I was enrolled in "Cradle Roll" at like three weeks of age and I never missed one single Sunday School class for NINETEEN YEARS! Does that count? My mom made it to forty-something until one day she got lost trying to find the church, but she never ever admitted it, ever.

I'm pretty much an atheist, with a tinge of agnosticism (an agnosticism that allows for some possibility of a some thing that bears absolutely NO resemblance to anything conjured up by any organized religion on the planet.)

Oh, but I did homeschool. :) As a liberal. My homeschooled son was the one to fully open my eyes to the completely ludicrous nature of "religion". I'd had doubts for years but has always been a bit afraid to completely let "god" go . . . Smart kid, my son.

[bluedeminredstate]

4. Not me.

But just an observation about the Duggers. They now have 19 children and aren't trying to stop any more that may come along.
What are the chances that at least one of their children is gay? I'd say pretty good.
I just wonder how that would be accepted in that family. Somehow I don't think it would be greeted with love and understanding.
Their first child is now married and he and his now-wife never were alone together before marriage and never kissed until the day of their wedding.
With ideas like that about sex, I'd say that family has some pretty backward ideas about sexuality and sexual orientation.
They seem like nice people but I am glad for my hippie Mom and my Dad who let her be the free spirit she was.
My kids would last about 10 minutes in the Dugger household before they staged a major revolt!

[Warpy]

6. 10 of my cousins grew up in a heavy handed Irish Catholic family

I think there's a grand total of 2 grandchildren from that family. Kids who were believers adopted the strategy of late marriage for the girls and marrying much older women for the boys or not marrying at all. The less than true believers all used birth control and there were a couple of vasectomies before marriage, too. 3 are gay or lesbian.

There is nothing like growing up in a zoo of a family to make you want to recreate one when you grow up.

[Sheepshank]

7. I worked with a gal

who was 2 of 10 in the very religious family. By the time she got married she was so sick of raising kids she got her tubes ties after child #2.

[Cleita]

8. Close. I spent my senior year with a large Catholic family in foster care.

There were seven kids out of eight. One had died years before of typhoid. I was born the same year as the dead child and therefore sort of took her place in their eyes. Two older brothers and an older sister were married, but in that year one of the brothers moved back in with his wife and four toddlers. There was also a nephew who was going to college who shared a bedroom with the boys who were still at home. There were three bedrooms and 1 1/2 baths in the house. We all went to Catholic school and the main meat dish was venison, which the father and boys bagged during hunting season. There were plenty of beans and other basic food. Nothing was fancy but was cooked in quantities. There was always plenty to eat. Since the two teenage girls were close to my age, we all wore each others clothes and had to sleep on two beds. Usually the sisters took the double bed and I took a fold out cot in the room.

When the other family moved in we had to squeeze two girl toddlers into the beds with us. The boys had to do the same with the other two boy toddlers. The young married couple had to sleep in the dining room. Needless to say, the biggest surprise is that the household went 24 hours a day. There was always someone who was up, watching TV, doing homework or just reading. The father who was a milkman got up at three in the morning. There was always someone who was up to have coffee and breakfast for him. We did have a sit down dinner at a large dining room table that was like a banquet table. It also served as our desks to do our homework. I can't imagine living with the Duggars.

The kids grew up to have larger families than we have today four to five kids but none had as many as their parents did. I went to visit the parents years later and they had become an empty nest couple lamenting that there were no more children at home although they did get frequent visits from grandchildren. I guess they were more like the Lennons than the Duggars. All the kids did well too, going to college and becoming professionals.

[mzteris]

16. not to be nosy -

ok - I'm being nosy - but really just more curious than anything else - what are you like now?

In some ways it sounded like you had a happy household. Was it? Or were there "hidden problems/issues"?

IMO not all Catholics, not all "religious" people are crazed and insane (Didn't mean to make that sound bad, but it did, didn't it?) I mean, lots of people that I like and respect are "religious". Though for the life of me I can't figure out why ...

[Cleita]

17. My household was very different. I was an only child. My parents

traveled continents and had nice homes, in some places with servants. We went to nice hotels and restaurants while in transit. The only reason I ended up with this family was that my mom got very sick and had to go home to my dad, who was in South America at the time, but we were happy as a family other than I believe my mother was starting to fall into some kind of mental illness that would get worse over the years, which also went untreated until the day she died. But back to why I lived with this family. Since it was decided that it wouldn't be cool to disrupt my senior year of high school, our parish helped my mother make arrangements for me to stay with this family so I could graduate and so my mom could get the medical care she needed and could go home to be with my father. Since one of the girls was a classmate of mine anyway, it wasn't like I was thrown in with a bunch of strangers. The teenaged girls were happy to have me because I came with a closetful of clothes that they could wear. It was fine with me.

They weren't crazed, but they did expect me to go to Mass and do the minimum observances, but that was pretty much enforced in school anyway. We had Christmas trees and Easter baskets, but there wasn't any frenzied Bible readings or anything like that. If anything, Catholics like to have a drink and sing, well the Irish Catholics do and these people were Irish. Yet, one of the reasons for so many children was the ban of using birth control. Although I suspect one of the reasons the baby factory closed with this family was that there were too many kids around for any privacy. Other than the fact the the house was busy 24/7 and maybe a bit cramped, it was a happy home.

[REP]

10. Quite the opposite

I was taught about over population and over consumption at home. I was educated at home in addition to my public schooling - that's why I know anything about grammar, which wasn't taught in KC school - as well as things like Veblen's economic theories.

My brother and I have no children by choice, and we're not any of the Big Three religions.

[handmade34]

11. I got out...

my grandparents were hard core (camp meeting in the summer, sometimes church every night) I had 3 uncles that were ministers and my mother(83) still is very fundmentalist... I went to seminary for a year...

[JuniperLea]

12. Recovering Fundy here!

I have several Fundy preacher cousins, and one who is a Christian missionary... the cool thing is, the missionary cousin has been all over the world, has learned several languages, including Hebrew and several of the ancient dialects, and has been studying ancient texts... and she pretty much agrees with my assessment of Biblical teachings, and the horrid proliferation of dogma that seems to be ruling much of Christianity right now. And don't get either one of us on televangelists and other "cult" figures.

The best part about my background is the firm knowledge that lies are being spoken in God's name... we used to call these people false prophets;)

[Divine Discontent]

14. God bless your missionary cousin.... amen.

[leeroysphitz]

15. Nope, I never did. n/t

[Quantess]

18. No. Agnostic family.

Fairly non-religious, overall.

[LeftWingPunk]

19. I always wondered

what would have happened if I had been born into a religious conservative family. Would I have ended up being one myself or would I have learned eventually. Its the nature vs. nurture revisited.

[shanti]

20. almost everyone i know

who grew up in a "large" family, had small families themselves....:shrug:

[Toasterlad]

21. There Was a Family With 18 Kids In Our Parish When I Was a Boy

Not homeschooled but catholic schooled. Very religious. Last I heard, every one of the kids was drunk, high, in jail, knocked up, dead, or some variation thereof.

[Crystal Clarity]

22. Black Sheep here...

The rents converted from Catholiscism to evangelical Christianity when I was 4. And it was :puke: the Anita Bryant., Jerry Falwell, "moral majority" kind of crap. My father brutally enforced it upon us... I remember having to fast from sunup to sundown for 3 days when I was only in the fourth grade!!! I ironically feared that if I snuck food, God would tell my parents on me... How bizarre to look back on it now to see that I feared God ratting me out to my parents. Hey, I was only 10... Fasting is only one small part of the trauma...It would blow your mind if I were to reveal all that happened during my childhood in God's name.

It's taken years of therapy to finally find the Clarity I needed to live a normal life. BTW notice the DU name?

It may seem hard to beleive but despite the distorted view of God that I received in my childhood, I'm a Christian now. But this follower of Christ strives to be like Him... Not like my parents.