Posted on 08/17/2011 11:17:55 AM PDT by NYer
ROCKVILLE, MD, August 16, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) — The astonishing story of a Maryland family with 11 children, ranging in age from 1 to 12, has been featured in a back-to-school piece by the Washington Post Newspaper. The August 10 story chronicles the Kilmer household's day-to-day life and details how they manage to stay lighthearted and have fun while balancing what some might consider an impossibly difficult lifestyle.
Read the Washington Post story here.
In an interview with LifeSiteNews (LSN), Larry Kilmer, a native of Halifax, Nova Scotia, said he viewed speaking with the Post about his family as "an opportunity to show that large families can exist and survive in the Washington area."
"It was a chance for others to see that with some sacrifices it can be done," he said. "Despite the fear that 'you cannot survive,' we wanted to show that it is possible."
The article introduces readers to Larry, a high school teacher, and his wife Jen, a stay-at-home mom, as well as children Christina, Joe, Michelle, Julie, Tommy, Steven, Matthew, John Paul, Larry, Rosemary, and Peter, none of whom are twins or triplets.
The feature chronicles the Kilmer family's daily life, from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. It notes the many challenges the family faces, but also highlights the many blessings, including the tight friendships shared by the children and the role that the "rock of Faith" plays in the Kilmer household.
"A large family helps to instill in a person many of the strong values and virtues that a society needs in order to survive and continue," Kilmer told LifeSiteNews.com. "In my opinion, the issue of putting others first is at the heart of a large family as you work and exist with other human beings in a close-knit environment."
Commenting on the Washington Post story, Jenn Giroux, founder of Speaking of Motherhood, who is also the mother of a large family, told LSN, "This is an incredible and fair portrayal of this beautiful large family. It is rare to get this perspective from a liberal media outlet."
"Large families have a positive impact on society," Giroux said. "At a time when our national birthrate is dangerously low, large families are producing the future workers that will sustain the elderly in the very near future… They are raising the next generation of Church and political leaders."
"At the heart of large families is the surrender to God’s supreme rights over our lives and an embrace and love of His gift of children," she said. "Unfortunately, this is a foreign and/or unknown concept that has been gradually lost over the last 50 years."
"It requires ‘blind trust’ in God in times of difficulty," Giroux said. "This is a difficult concept for a contracepting society where those today seek to control everything from the day they conceive to sometimes the very sex of their baby."
Read the Washington Post story here.
“Don’t you know what causes that?”
“Yes, we do. Would you like me to explain it to your husband, so that you can have children, too?”
You could be a standup comic, Tax-chcik! LOL!!!!
Some of today’s parents seem to spend as much on their one child as my parents did on seven of us.
It certainly does. :)
When the real estate market stabilizes a bit we're going to build a house with two dishwashers, then it won't be an issue.
I wasn’t, but my parents did their best. I think that’s all that matters, and I appreciate what I have now. Besides, you deserved to be spoiled. :)
YES I DO!!!!!!!!!!
I wouldn't mind having two dishwashers, but at this point we'd have to sacrifice storage, which isn't an option. I wouldn't mind having two refrigerators either, since my husband appears to have an unrelenting desire to acquire every condiment presently available.
LOL! :)
I want a separate fridge and freezer but full size. That would be a dream come true!! Ahhh... Dreams are good.
I often like staying home, though.
My DH is such a non-cook I can hardly even say if he’s bad or not. What I wonder is how he survived before we got married.
Take out from Ruth's Chris isn't as good as you might think, the steak is done sizzling long before you get it home.
We have a second refrigerator in the basement, but it’s not so convenient.
Cooking is an art, imho. My husband and I love watching “Chopped” and “Iron Chef”.
Is Fresh Market like Whole Foods?
I’m hoping Tom will be a comedy star!
We all try to spoil you, we really do. ; )
Nobody else in my family knows how to load the dishwasher. I just move everything they put in there to the “right” place, or put it back in the sink and make them wash it. I only run the dishwasher every 3 or 4 days, unless we have guests.
We have a top-loading freezer in the garage. Mostly we store extra bread and frozen pizza in it. The neighbors tried to give us an extra refrigerator (I also have the condiment problem!) but I figured the children would just get everything out.
Never been to Ruth’s Chris, either. A takeout meal for all of us is very expensive, so if we don’t feel like cooking - or like just now, find that the chicken should have been cooked a week ago - we can just have toast.
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