Growing up, I was opportune to live in a big family even though I come from a small one. I mean, just my dad, my two siblings and I are a small family but we do have a large extended family and situation made dad leave my siblings and I in the care of his relatives while we were still little and needed all the guidance we could get. This gave the chance to be in a large family.
For someone who spent a part of her childhood and teenage years in a big family of aunts, cousins and even far distance relatives, you could say I have enough experience to decide which I'd prefer if I have to choose especially for the family I want in the future. Believe me, every size of a family has it's perks but what should matter more than size is the love and memories.
I can still remember most of the fun and exciting days while I was living with my aunts, cousins and other relatives. We'd all eat together even though in separate plates but at the same time and we'd make jokes out of just anything while we eat (table manner couldn't find it's place in our house back then). The eldest in the house almost never rest because of our acts in the house.
I don't remember how I felt about the switch back to my small family lifestyle when dad returned but right now, I have so many lovely memories from living with both a big and a small family. The chaos in the big family is a whole lot compared to the one I had in my small family, it's one of the part I don't think I love that about the big sized family as I appreciate peaceful living.
My four persons family have been a wonderful experience for me, I think we made more memories that I appreciate and made positive impact in my life than the ones I made with the big sized family I lived with then. I'm not against having a large family, actually almost everyone does have them if they would gather in one place but I would appreciate such a size once a while.
In the future, I would want a small sized family like my family made me live in though not without the random but planned visits of relatives especially my favourite ones. We can plan a large family house get together, spend some days with each other and we all go our way. I got this idea from my aunt who loves having many persons around but can't have her own large family.
Even if money isn't an issue, I wouldn't want to create my own large family but instead I'll have others come live with me sometimes to have the feeling of a big family. It's something I enjoy doing but it can't be too much, the mental load that comes with it can be something else but very bearable if it's not a regular. A large family is beautiful but a small family is more beautiful.
Images are AI generated
