I'm sure that the younger kids get some play time. But, the older kids clearly have what is essentially a full-time job taking care of the younger kids. They don't seem to have too much time to devote to normal kid activities, such as sports, part-time jobs, spending time with friends and the like.
Not too long ago it was the norm for girls and boys to learn how to be good parents while growing up.
Nothing wrong with that. But, it shouldn't be a full-time job that robs teenagers of a normal life.
I’m just saying that too much social time can be just as bad or worse. Their lifestyle isn’t for everyone but hey...compared to some of the unsupervised..self centered brats I see today, they don’t seem to be doing too bad as parents.
i know a family with ten children (well, i know more than one family with ten children--and they all homeschool)... but the parents of this particular family start to take away chores from the children as each child gets into the high school years... so once they are high school-aged, they no longer do the cooking, the laundry, etc... they are given more time to figure out what they want to do with their upcoming adulthood...
my own two boys, ages 8 and 12, do their own laundry... and they actually negotiate over who gets to do the vacuuming... they love to vacuum... so do i, so the kitchen, dining room, my bedroom and living room are pretty much my territory... they divide the rest of the house... they also clean two of the three bathrooms--usually... sometimes i do one of them... these chores add up to maybe 2 to 2.5 hours a week...
the 12-year old loves to mow the lawns with our riding lawn mower... he can't wait to get his driver's license... our younger one is just now learning to use the push mower... he is very excited about being able to mow the smaller lawn... he knows it won't be long before he gets to use the riding mower...
currently, because we are experiencing cold weather, they are excited about building fires in the fire place... my husband likes to build the fires, too... so they take turns or build them together...
because we homeschool, they get plenty of play time... even with all the time that is put into their academics... they work hard... and they play even harder...