Table for Eight: Raising a Large Family in a Small-Family World

I did enjoy reading this book. It was nice to read all of the opinions of other Mom's. There are some great practical examples of how Mom's with 4 children and more manage their household, pay for things with a larger family, work, vacation, purchase cars, etc. There is also an interesting section about adopting children with a large family. The author, at the end of chapters, will give a list of resources including websites that you can go to for more information on each subject. All in all I would recommend this book to anyone that is thinking of having a "larger" family because this has suggestions for many situations that are factors with a larger family all in one book.

I recently received a copy of Table for Eight, Raising a large family in a small family world by Meagan Francis, and I have come to one single conclusion after reading it and that would be that anyone who has or is thinking of having a large family should have a copy of this book. Kids are great, but even one or two can be challenging, and once you get up to four and beyond, it's a whole new ball of wax. Oh, I know, many moms, especially those of us with lots of kids, know it all and don't need any advice, but my take on life is that until you cease to exist, you're learning. Of course, I headed straight for the food chapter: Feeding Your Flock, and all I have to say about this is that the advice there is sound, sound, sound. There's info there (and all over the book) from real moms with many children who have been there, done that. There are also menu planning and pantry charts (click here for more of that type) to help keep your food stores and tummies full. The only thing I would add at all would be ALDI. I really like the chapter Having Fun, since we tend NOT to have enough of this. We did go camping a few years ago and had a blast for very little cash, but that's been it. This chapter has websites and ideas I never thought of. I also like Keeping the Household Running, not just for the great tips, but also for the fact that one of the Additional Resources is the URL to Lots of Kids, where I am on staff.

I really hate to not give this book 5 stars - I really WANTED to love it. There is such a need for books like this. But this book wasn't as great as it could have been. First, I expected with a title like this that it would be about families with 6 or more kids [I have five, and was looking for advice from those "experts" with more than I have!]. The author has 4 children, and many of the mothers she quotes through the book have 4 [or even 3 children - which might seem humorous to those with mega families to think of a family with 3 kids as "large"]. She did have some mothers of larger families contributing in some places, but their advice was fewer and farther between. Second, I felt like the book had a negative tone. Like "yeah, having a bunch of kids is exhausting, noisy, hard...but you CAN live through it" [which it certainly is like that some days :) ]. But there was not much counterbalance - having a bunch of kids is also FUN, exciting, entertaining, and wonderful in a way that is totally unique. There are GREAT reasons some of us choose to have a lot of kids. I didn't get any sense of that reading this book. In fact, if I read this book when I only had 2 kids, I might just stop there! I would be afraid to add more children! The author has an awkward chapter in the beginning of the book about "how big families happen" and she goes into an explanation of her own big family that seemed kind of defensive - according to her, she didn't "plan" to have all those children, they just sort of kept happening by accident. Which is just fine - many of life's greatest blessings are "surprises" from God. :) But I also had the feeling that maybe on some level she didn't necessarily WANT a large family and that she tended to see the negative side of it a lot more than the positive. Third, I found most of the advice in the book to be pretty much "common sense" stuff that most moms of more than a handful of kids have probably already figured out on their own. Maybe my expectations were just too high, but I found very little in this book that was new or helpful to me in managing my crowd. She covers a lot of different topics but covers them all very superficially. So, I'm not sure how useful this book will be to most moms of bigger families in general. But I WANT to like this book - it isn't a bad book by any means, don't get me wrong. It is well written, easy to read, and it does have some interesting and helpful parts. I found the section on vacationing with a large family to be particularly helpful. I just would have liked to see the *great* aspects of having a large family covered a bit more and I would have liked to see more in-depth coverage of the challenges we face with a bunch of kiddos.

I really can't say enough good things about this book. The author offers a good look at what different kinds of large families are like and gives loads and loads of practical advice on organizing and raising a large family. I have four kids myself and found good advice in this book. I also liked that she links you to other resources (books and websites) for larger families.