When I was young, we often lived with other family because we were all so poor. I got to thinking about how different my life is now from when I grew up and a lot of the difference is the lack of people around. Anyway, there were two occasions that really stand out for being the most crowded we ever were. One was a summer with my father when we lived with his new wife and her family of 8 brothers and sisters plus spouses and children. I haven’t yet done the math on that living situation, but the other one that stands out for me is detailed below.
We lived on 50th street in Tampa Florida. I wonder if that street even exists anymore.
There was Abuela and Abuelo. That’s 2
3 out of their 6 children. 3
1 spouse 1
7 grandkids 7
So that was 13 people in a 4 bedroom, one bath home. We lived that way for about 2 years, I think.
Anyone else ever live with a lot of people for an extended time? Do you ever miss it, or would it drive you bonkers? I can say there were pros and cons from my point of view. I’d love to hear your stories.
I think the height was 13 people but the real problem wasn’t the number of people as much as it was the size of the home.
The home was a small 3-bedroom apartment. The apartment I had lived in with my family was also a 3-bedroom but it was huge. This foster-apartment wasn’t. One bedroom was allocated to girls and one to boys. The other was used by the foster mother and her son (he had a trundle bed in her room). Another foster boy slept on a pull-out sofa in the very small living room. Each foster kid bedroom had 2 bunk beds and a twin bed. There was barely room to move around. The kitchen wasn’t even big enough to hold a 2 person breakfast nook type of table. The only relief we had was the not quite finished basement room that had a nintendo and a B&W tv and not quite enough room to uncomfortably hold half the foster kids. There was one bathroom.
That was my first experience with foster care. Luckily it got better from there (but not by much in most cases).
I do NOT like living with a lot of other people. Not at all. I don’t ever want to do it again. I’m very comfortable in my 2 person home with lots of space. That last foster home was very nice and I really liked it there but still, too damn many people.
My last foster home (and the absolute best one I’ve ever experienced) had 10 people at its height but that was spread out over 3 floors. My foster parents shared a room on the first floor. There were 3 girls in a huge bedroom, 2 in a medium bedroom, and 1 in a small bedroom - all on the second floor. There were also 2 girls in the finished basement bedroom - which also had its own living room and which was only for the long term highly trusted girls (like me). All us kids shared one bathroom and the foster parents had their own.
I’ve always lived with extended family, and while it has its perks, there are a lot of cons to it as well.
Twice I’ve lived with 12 people, including myself.
The first time was in a 3 bedroom, 1.5 bath trailer, that measured 12’x60’, which put 12 of us living in 720 sq. feet of space. There was my mom, my step dad, me, my 2 sisters, and my brother. Then there was my aunt and uncle, and their 3 daughters and son. We lived together for 6 months, and by the end we were at each others throats. It resulted in my aunt, uncle, and their kids living in the woods behind the trailer for 2 weeks. If I remember right, the argument was about my uncle being able to afford booze, but not being able to help with the rent.
The next time I lived with 12 people, it was my mom, my step dad, me and my siblings, my step dad’s boss, his wife, and their 2 kids, a different uncle and aunt. By now we were in a 3 bedroom 1 bath house with a severe carbon monoxide leak. My mom and step dad slept in a bedroom, my aunt and uncle had a bedroom, my step dad’s boss, his wife, and kids had a room, and me and my siblings slept in the living. Which was our choice, as we much preferred it to the bedrooms, since the only heater in the house was in there, as was the only tv. The only good thing that happened was my step dad’s boss had dish service put in, back when the small dishes were just being made. That and the huge porn collection they had. I didn’t often have the house to myself, but I was certainly entertained when I did.
Boy, I had it easy compared to you guys. My other one was just for a summer, but there was year round school, so it was less carefree than it might have otherwise been. There were over 25 of us, but the house was big. Still just one bathroom, but there was a large screened in porch that wrapped around the whole house and there were beds in every square inch.
It was Florida, so the weather was nice most of the time, but there was also no heat in this place and my step moms dad brought in the BBQ once when we had a cold spell. My passing out is what prompted them to air the place out and remove the BBQ.
I enjoyed myself most of the time, but I think it would drive me nuts now. I liked always having someone to do something with. I hated the bathroom problem.
I think I would have a real problem being poor again, even if there would be less boredom.
Let’s see…when I lived with my ex-SO, we had my four kids, Oldest Son’s SO, and her baby–8 total in a 3 bedroom house. After Oldest Son and his crew moved out, 2 homeless teenagers moved in and we were back up to 7.
I loved having a crowd, and the little kids loved it. Not so sure my teen kids enjoyed such close quarters, though. But it was fun on Movie Night.
For about a month and a half it was me and fourteen others. Talking out on the patio, especially in the morning, was great. Three bathrooms for fifteen females required Machiavellian tactics to get your mirror and shower time.
Otherwise, my family of four and one exchange student is my max.
Up until age 9, there were six people living in the house: mom, dad, grandmother, brother, sister and me. That’s my max. Even my dorm room in college only had five people in it.
Just to be clear, in my case I lived in an originally four bedroom suburban home that had been rennovated to add several more bedrooms and an extra bathroom.
I guess I’m at my maximum now. I live with my husband and 4 children, so there are 6 of us. Plus 2 dogs and 2 cats. Some days it seems like a lot, other days, not so much.
Yeah, six is the most for me too, if you don’t count dormitories (my college dorm had 42, 10-11 to a hall with a single bathroom, and the student residence where I’m staying now has a couple hundred rooms I believe). That was when my aunt was staying with us - my family consists of my parents, two brothers, and me. There’s also the cat, but she’s probably not under your definition of ‘people’.
I’ve never lived with more than 5 including me (mom, stepdad, and 2 sisters; and then mom, stepdad, sister, and daughter). I haven’t shared a room since I was 8. I’d go crazy living with a ton of people so it’s lucky I never had to.
Basic? Ha! At one point on my last deployment, before we got the base built up, we had 19 guys in a 14 x 22 room. We were so close I could almost touch both bunks on either side of me, AND we were stacked in bunks! Lol! After about two months, we had enough space to push us all into CHUs, and there were four guys living comfortably in that room…
For a while, I lived in a small 3 bedroom house, which, when everyone was there, also contained: a now ex boyfriend, his Dad, his Dad’s girlfriend, his Dad’s ex-girlfriend, his Dad’s ex-girlfriend’s girfriend, and his Dad’s exgirlfriend’s 3 kids (one of which was his).
It was quite rare that all of 'em were there at the same time though.
One is a time I don’t remember, right after I was born and my dad abandoned us. One of the relatives who we lived with recently passed away, so my mom sent me a note on Facebook that happened to mention the number of people: me, my mom, my paternal grandfather and step-grandmother, two step-aunts, and an uncle. Apparently this was a very tiny bungalow-type house, too.
The other is about half a year spent living with the same uncle mentioned above; this was a twelve years or so later, and my mom was in a bad car accident that necessitated a months-long hospital stay and several more months of intensive rehab, during which my mom couldn’t have handled a child very well. So it was me, my aunt and uncle, and four cousins. This was a bit bigger house, though, with three bedrooms, and they were happy to have me: I was a very early adopter of the NES, and they were enthralled with the thing.
