"And as it is physically impossible to shuttle their children to extracurriculars all over town, they are often free to do what they want within a two-mile radius.
In short,
because they are not capable of meeting the expectations of parenthood in the modern age, they do not try to. 'We have these childless friends come over and they’re like, "You always seem so calm,"' Mrs Korczynski said. 'They say, "You ignore most things, but if something’s going on then you can hop on that."' There are, of course, downsides. Every morning the children struggle to get into the one bathroom they share with each one banging on the door, yelling for the shower (the parents have their own). Dinners are like battles royale — 'they know if they’re late there might not be any food left,' said Mr Korczynski."
How will they pay for college? "I think this is where having a big family comes in handy for college, because they do give you better financial aid packages."
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Ah the modern expectations of parenting...
"Bullying your extended family into buy overpriced popcorn so little Braeden can offset the costs of his travel soccer club."
This sounds like a lot of the families I knew growing up in the late 50s and 60s.
It also reminds me of the family depicted at the beginning of the movie Caddyshack.
Ooh, ooh, look, Gorillas in the mist!
I don’t think that the traditional brick and mortar college will continue to be the expected route. It’s mostly obsolete.
We kids all roamed free in the 50s. 3 kids was the norm. Stray dogs also roamed free and played with the kids. That was before child sexual abuse became a "public problem" (70s) and "dangerous dogs" (80s) were a public crisis.
The internet now informs me that Groucho Marx never actually said it, which is kind of disappointing.
On the bright side, you never see dogs hit by cars now, except Buddy, the Clintons' dog. They expressed the same regret message on that as they did for Vince Foster.
My daughters spent 7 and 8 years in various colleges, respectively. Was it worth it? That's debatable.
I believe we are going to have a real discussion about the efficiency and value of our "education system," and the after effects. There must be a better way.
Most of the young men in this area are avoiding traditional universities, unless they are pursuing careers in engineering, medicine, or other hard sciences.
One of my bosses had seven kids. By all accounts, they were the most industrious, well-behaved kids in the entire region.
Some say we are on the verge of a population crisis; most certainly, the South Koreans and Japanese are.
This is the time, I suppose, when we decide what we want our country, and our planet to look like in the future.
My mil raised her little brother. My observation with the clients with big family is you get enough of them they start raising themselves…
Those cost of raising kids surveys do get out of whack with reality but the mom is right about tuition and big families. I suspect as musician/school teacher their kids college applications are sorted into the financial need pile at the admissions office…
I have 8 siblings. This sounds familiar EXCEPT there was always sufficient food. We did not have any well-defined radius, either. It was 'Go out and play.'
My son and his bride have 6 children. Oldest is 12, youngest is 1. All home-schooled (naturally).
The 12 year old is a working fool. Always asking me if he can do some work at my “ranch”, which naturally I accommodate him. Weed whacking, raking leaves etc. He raises and sells chickens. He is an astonishingly good piano player. He had a pretty hefty savings account, until he got wind that CD’s paid more interest. Now he wants to invest his $$$ in the market.
It appears the remaining 5 children are following in his footsteps.
I can remember growing up in the 70s and the elite was pushing "zero population growth". We had too many damn people. Now in 2025, we have 340 million and we're told we need more. And the elite are cheering for it.
Hmm...I wonder why.
There isnt enough real homework
I can remember growing up in the 70s and the elite was pushing "zero population growth".
Also that a new ice age was upon us.
Why would any right-thinking American send their children to college?
What J Severs said. The actual limits were more like what healthy young boys could walk or bike between breakfast and dinnertime.
Marcus Bressler said...
Why would any right-thinking American send their children to college?
STEM classes.
The wife of a young guy I worked with gave birth to twins. One of the ladies told him that would make for a lot of work. He answered that as the fourth of eleven kids on the farm, he could handle it.
“How will they pay for college?”
They won’t. We will.
I grew up in a family with four kids and one bathroom. The bathroom was the only room with a locking door. It became the sanctuary and the jail for the semi-independent government of the kids, which functioned mainly via a battle between the powers of size versus accusations and appeals to the supreme court. Truth was the victim. The supreme court's greatest power was indifference.
If you can raise a child to posses a work ethic, you guarantee them wealth and independence that will start early in their adulthood by avoiding college and pursuing knowledge, skill and experience directly. School has become mostly a place of conformity run by less than accomplished people for their own profit. Not a great place to learn.
Agreed, Big Mike. As long as they keep their ideology out of the STEM classes.
How to pay for college...
For 3 of mine, service academy, ROTC, and GI Bill.
Financial aid? That's loans if you're a Caucasian male, even with a 4.0 GPA and high SATs. And it's been that way since at least the 1970s. Gotta be "disadvantaged" to qualify for a full scholarship including room and board.
On the bright side, you never see dogs hit by cars now, except Buddy, the Clintons' dog. They expressed the same regret message on that as they did for Vince Foster.
So Buddy knew too much, is what you're saying?
I was one of seven kids. I saw that one of my jobs was to not be the kid that needed attention.
So Buddy knew too much, is what you're saying?
They couldn’t take the chance.
College isn't the flex it once was and is likely to become even less. If not a red flag. Most of what college does, make copies of the professors, is going to be displaced by AI.
Now, if the kid does hard STEM, with an emphasis on problem solving, not knowing the names but not understanding, then those bits of colleges will continue to have value.
=====================
But, I want to go to the other end of the spectrum, which is intellectual services. It used to be, if you wave your Bachelor's degree, you're going to get a great job. When I graduated from college, it was a sure thing that you'd get a great job. And, in college, you'd basically learned artificial intelligence, meaning, you carried out the instructions that the faculty member gave you. You memorized the lectures, and you were tested on your memory in the exams. That's what a computer does. It basically memorizes what you tell it to do.
But now, with a computer doing all those mundane, repetitive intellectual tasks, if you're expecting to do well in the job market, you have to bring, you have to have real education. Real education means to solve problems that the faculty who teach don't really know how to solve.
And that takes talent as well as education.
So, my view is we've got to change education from a kind of a big Xerox machine where the lectures are memorized and then tested, into one which is more experienced-based to prepare a workforce for the reality of the 20th [sic] century. You've got to recognize that just because you had an experience with, say, issues in accounting, doesn't mean that you have the ability to innovate and take care of customers who have problems that cannot be coded.
--Econtalk podcast with economist Ed Leamer, April 13, 2020
Or this from Richard Feynman in a 1952 lecture
In this powerful true story, Nobel Prize–winning physicist Richard Feynman walks into a classroom expecting sharp minds—and instead uncovers a hidden crisis in education that still affects students, professionals, and self-learners today. What he discovered wasn’t laziness or lack of intelligence, but something far more unsettling: a system perfectly designed to reward memorization while preventing real understanding.
https://youtu.be/T1PuGEsE4po
Can university and college adapt to AI? Historically, they have taken decades to change as the old guard dies out. We are just now seeing the full impact of the corruption of teaching that started with the undergraduates in the 1960s.
I am trying to get my (two) kids interested in college, but they don't seem to see the point.
college is overrated
There was some controversy about this story yesterday.
My family of 7 moved from a 6-bedroom home in Salt Lake City to a 3-bedroom apartment in NYC. Our cost of living went up, but it's worth it.
https://www.businessinsider.com/family-of-7-moved-from-salt-lake-to-nyc-2025-12
Apparently the family does exist. There are photos and the five kids would have been hard to manage. But the something about the story does scream fake.
"The Korczynskis both said this was what they focused on, especially when doomsdayers argue that bringing children into a time of technological uncertainty, political unrest and *potential environmental collapse* is delusional or even irresponsible."
I notice a softening. Bringing them along slowly to the reality that it was all horseshit.
That's real maple syrup that she's pouring on the pancakes, so or whatever reason, they're not actually hurting for money. So, are they really just poor musicians? They are like a lot of Irish Catholic families I grew up around during my childhood in the Boston region. Faithful, borderline poor, prolific. Every kid was assigned responsibilities, many of them in support of younger siblings. There is something fake about the story though, and I notice that nothing about religion is mentioned, nor is SNAP. Still: Good to see coverage about big families, bring them back !
I remember visiting people who had 9 children who shared one bathroom. I was impressed by the toothbrush holder. There were a lot of large families where I grew up.
I raised 6 kids (only 1 left under age 18), people make it seem hard. I never understood that. Set your priorities. If someone was late for dinner did not mean they didn't get any that. What would just mean the parents didn't make enough. If you think about it, if one went short by being late, than by logic, everyone would be shortened in some way if everyone was there on time. It's dumb logic. College was/is accessible to all our kids, and it's not cause we raked in the dough. During 2002-2012, we lived on one income around 60k. what are listed as necessities aren't really necessities.
WSB
I bet your wife raised those kids while you were out working to support them. Ask her how hard it was?
Unlimited food is a necessity at all meals?
Talk about dumb logic...
Yes, dogs are rarely hit by cars nowadays. Pooches are not allowed to be loose, same as their children counterparts. What I do see is lots of dogs in baby carriages in supermarkets that have signs prohibiting all animals except for service animals -- but 75% of the dogs that come in are NOT service animals. You can ask two questions of the dog owner but they are worthless. I blame the legislators who wrote the law. There SHOULD be a certification with documents that owners are required to present if questioned by management or owners. I want to gag when I see a little poodle type in the bottom of a two-tiered shopping cart. Filthy. And I LOVE dogs
Mother of five here. I can assure you, the college financial aid does not care how many children you have unless you are in the poor house.
"I was impressed by the toothbrush holder. "
This is a Woody Allen-esque observation. Of course, followed by some neurotic New York take on personal hygiene.
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