62-year-old great-grandmother just had her 12th baby

Professor · Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 757

Nope, I"m not reading the tabloids at the grocery store checkout -- this was on CNN Headline News.

WHY????????????????

She's 62, also has 20 grandkids, and 3 great-grandkids . . .

I cannot imagine why someone would want to do this at 62 . . . I wouldn't even want to at my age, unless maybe I'd never had any before, and always wanted to . . . But when you've had 11, what exactly is it that you're going to do with the 12th one that you couldn't do with the first 11? And how unfair is that to do to a child? My daughter is 25 and still likes having a mom. Most kids would . . . not just til they're 18 and (supposed to be) on their own. How long will this woman be around?? And what quality of life will she have as a mother -- can she do what kids want moms to do??

I just don't understand it.

Ciddings · Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 162 Location: Washington

I really think I am starting to have the beginning of the empty nest syndrome or maybe a mild mid-life crisis. My kids are almost grown and that has been my life. I have loved every second of raising them! It dawned on me first last Christmas, I went to the toy section and realized that there was no longer any reason for me to be in this isle. No one wanted any toys. So, I got a couple of those paper stockings on a tree with kids names on them and bought some toys for them!

Valentines Day no one wanted those cute little valentines in a box. So I just bought a big sack of those candy hearts and wrote my kids a "love letter" using the phrases on the candies and baked heart shaped cookies for their lunch. They thought it was corny but my son said his friends were jealous over the cookies at lunch.

So, I can understand the desire... but like you said she has 11 already. Surely out of all those kids at least one is old enough to have had some grandkids. I will take a grandbaby over being pregnant at this age anytime. Very Happy

I don't think my daughter is ready for a baby yet (she has been married a little over a year) but I sure am!
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Connie
March 8

Professor · Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 757

Ciddings · Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 162 Location: Washington

I did read that. I guess with me it is so new, that I am just nostalgic. Believe me, I had three in diapers at one time, and I do not wish to go back to no free time, no sleep, no quiet.....NO WAY! I just need to figure out what my new thing is going to be for next phase of my life. I have known people and have even entertained these thoughts myself, that I will have as many as God sees fit to give me. Perhaps that is what she believes. As for me, if I am supposed to have 12 kids than I will need the desire to do that first, than of course a new uterus-since I no longer have mine! Wink

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Connie
March 8

Torrey · Joined: 11 Apr 2005 Posts: 955 Location: Hawthorne, NJ

Wow--that's crazy! Shocked

First of all, TWELVE kids??? Second of all, 62 years old and a great-grandmother?? Holy crap!

Don't get me wrong, I want kids, a whole bunch of them actually (I'm 30 now, I've never been married, but I am "Mom" to a 4-year-old tabby cat and a 12-year-old yellow Lab), but certainly not 12 and not when I'm 62!!! Rolling Eyes

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~Torrey Smile

August 24, 1975
GF BD July 12, 2004

Ciddings · Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 162 Location: Washington

I don't know how she would begin to do it. I know I don't have nearly as much energy as I did twenty years ago. I suppose she is in no short supply for helpers though! Razz

I guess I can't judge, but it is not for me.
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Connie
March 8

Professor · Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 757

Her 11th kids is now three and a half . . . THey had a pic of her and hubby on the news story -- he looks much younger than her. Might have something to do with it?

Ciddings · Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 162 Location: Washington

If only we had the technology to support the passing of laws that would require that guys have to carry the first born and then every other child after that. I have a feeling things might be different population wise, and I would be buying stock in birth contol products and vasectomy clinics and retire a millionaire. Please do not get offended, I do not mean to be sexist, of course I mean absolutely no offense to any of you men who have given birh and enjoyed it. Wink

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Connie
March 8

The Edifying Conscience · Joined: 29 Aug 2005 Posts: 2484

More power to her for choosing an unconventional choice. I hope she's alive and healthy long enough to watch her child grow up.

But I've gotta say I feel sad for the child. His mom is always going to be old. The child will probably be asked a million times "is that your her grandma?" Who's going to take him for bike rides, to amusemunt parks, get on the floor and play with him, go to school events, watch him graduate from high school/college, help him get ready for his wedding, etc. While the mother may be perfectly healthy now, she can't live forever and more than likely she'll have health issues before she dies.

If she lives to be 100 then the child will be 38 when his/her mom dies. I'm not yet 38 and I would hate for my mom to be dead at this point in my life.

Just because we can, it doesn't mean we should. Heck, I'm 35 and I feel too old to be the type of mom I want to be.

All of the above is my opinion,
TEC

paw · Joined: 28 Sep 2005 Posts: 355 Location: Michigan

I saw this "new Mom" on TV too. She did not look so hot. At first I thought it was going to be a story about some terrible medical problem that she was lucky to survive. I was very surprised when they announced her new baby! I might not have looked great a day after delivery either, but she looked scary to me.

This did not just happen -- she had a donor egg. I read that online at a news site but I can't remember which one. I think there is a reason your body can't usually have a pregnancy when you are much over 40. Ummm -- you are getting too old to see that child grow up. I know things are better for "mature" Moms, but that is way beyond the limits of sanity. I don't think doctors are being responsible to help this happen. Confused

I feel bad for the youngest kids in that family.

Professor · Joined: 19 Oct 2005 Posts: 757

Ciddings · Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 162 Location: Washington

I was trying to find an article I had heard awhile ago about a family who had multiple, multiple births which resulted in an ungodly amount of kids and the parents were fairly advanced in years. I couldn't find it, but I did fun across this, it isn't in our time, like the other story was, but amazing still.

MOST CHILDREN (by one women)
The greatest officially recorded number of children produced by a mother is 69 by the first of the 2 wives of Feodor Vassilyev (b 1707-fl. 1782), a peasant from Shuya, 150 miles east of Moscow. In 27 confinements she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, 7 sets of triplets and 4 sets of quadruplets. The children, were born in the period c. 1725-1765.

Can you say CRAZY! Talk about being a baby machine. No wonder he had two wives, he wore the first one out.
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Connie
March 8

dkad · Joined: 08 Apr 2005 Posts: 315 Location: TX (panhandle)

maria1223 · Guest

I'm 39 & almost at that stage of empty nest my youngest is 16,than 17 than18 & 21 are gone. but I have 5 grandbabies to go yet. they all love to come to mom mom & poppy's house. when I got sick my mom abandoned me. I guess that she in some way's remembers her own mom dying when she ( my Mom was 4 yrs old ) my grandma was 34. she came over from germany because she was sick had 2 kids & died of body cancer. My self I never would ever give up on my kids I even help raise my youngest grandbaby who is 6 months old.