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While many families are opting for fewer children due to financial and societal pressures, some are defying this trend by embracing larger families. Among them is Rosina Gordon, a 53-year-old who, along with her husband who works as a teacher, decided to raise their six children in regional New South Wales. The children, whose ages range from 10 to 20, are being brought up in an environment that Gordon believes fosters a strong sense of community.
Gordon’s own upbringing in a family of six instilled in her a love for the lively and supportive atmosphere that comes with having many siblings. She aspired to recreate this experience for her own children. Her Catholic faith also influenced her decision to have a large family, serving as a source of strength and guidance.
“Did my faith help me to conquer the fears and uncertainties associated with the financial burdens and instability of raising children? Absolutely,” she shared in an interview with nine.com.au. Her belief system provided the reassurance and courage needed to embrace the joys and challenges of raising a big family.
Her Catholic faith also played a role.
“Is it faith that helped me to overcome the fear, the unforeseeable financial burden and instability that looms with the prospect of children? Well, yes,” she told nine.com.au.
“Having a large family has also definitely made my faith stronger.”
But it set her apart from many other Aussie families.
About 19.6 per cent of couple families and 15.3 per cent of one-parent families had three or more children in the 2021 Census.
Those figures were down from 21.6 and 15.6 per cent respectively in 2015.
Raising six children on a single income hasn’t been easy and the family has always had to be careful with money.
Research suggests it can cost anywhere from $164,000 to $370,000 to raise one child in Australia and families with two or more children can expect to cough up a lot more.
The cost is high for a family as big as Gordon’s but she makes ends meet.
Her children wore hand-me-down clothes from relatives, their home is stacked with thrifted furniture, and family outings were done on a budget.
For Gordon, the joys have outweighed the hardships.
But she’s also willing to admit that in this day and age “you really can’t have it all”.
“We are focused on individual goals and consumerism [and] motherhood is not promoted as glamorous or fulfilling,” she said.
She’s spent the last 20 years fostering a small but tight-knit community of mums who also have big families and understand the demands of raising so many kids.
She says they’ve been absolutely vital in supporting her emotional and mental health.
“I have always sought out and surrounded myself with families living similarly to us,” Gordon said.
“It can’t be done without a solid, committed, loyal friendship circle.”
Jangelah Frew, 33, gets support from within her own large family.
She didn’t always want lots of kids but found her life’s purpose and fulfillment when she had her first nine years ago.
Now she’s pregnant with her fifth and couldn’t be happier.
“We wanted a big family and we got all of the joy, love, chaos and stress that comes with it,” she said.
Inflation and the cost of living has made the family budget tight.
There have been times when Frew and her partner had to juggle multiple minimum wage jobs to get by.
Now they’re self-employed and receive government support, but they always find a way to make it work.
They’ve sacrificed things like annual holidays, eating out, food delivery and technology upgrades.
Frew home-schools the children in their Victoria rental and all meals are made from scratch on a grocery budget of about $300 per week.
The family motto is “needs before wants” but for Frew, the sacrifice is worth it.
“The support for having a large family is already there and we’re proof,” she said.
“We utilise government support, my partner and I are solid, and we make life work within our means while we strive towards providing more for our family.”
She also rejected assumptions that all big families must be religious, ”povo” (poor), bogan, or only reproducing to claim benefits.
Between the cost-of-living crisis and housing shortages, many Australians feel they can’t afford to have a big family and the life they want for themselves.
Gordon and Frew said they’re proof that it can be done.
They also called for more support to be made available to help Aussies who want large families, like additional childcare funding and tax deductions.
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