Contributor Info

Each answer within a post includes contributor name(s) so that readers can come here and gain basic information about each contributor's family. Most of the names of our contributors have been changed for privacy and to encourage the honest sharing of experiences and opinions. 

Contributor Criteria

We (the blog coordinators) are particularly interested in learning how to prepare and inspire our kids to do the things described here (involving faith, marriage, college, and missions), and so we've sought contributors who have done it in an effort to learn from them. Each of our contributors have raised at least three children and, unless otherwise noted, 80% or more of their children have completed at least a bachelor's degree in college, are married, and are actively participating in their parents' faith.* All contributors have sent at least some children on LDS missions or a similar experience as well. We feel that parents who have prepared and inspired the high majority of their children to achieve these things have intentionally done things that brought about these much higher than normal results, and we want to learn about this. Although these achievements (gospel commitment, marriage, college, and missions) are the things we are interested in learning about for this project, we readily note that these criteria are not the only measures of parental success. As one contributor has expressed, "These are...landmarks we think of as success in raising...children, however, the true success comes with individual testimony and life and parenting skills," and in the end the choice remains with each child and can be affected by biological and other factors.

Abigail and Martin

Five kids.

Anna and Gerry

Five kids. 

Barbara and Daniel

Seven kids. 

Brianne and Spencer

Three kids.

Christy and Ben

Four kids. 

Cynthia and Brad

Four kids.

Danielle and Jake

Five kids. 

Jane and Samuel

Seven kids. Two children are unmarried--one suffers from brain injuries sustained in a car-related accident in his youth.

Karen and Lance 

Eight kids (two from a previous marriage).  

Lillian
Five kids. Lillian was widowed when her youngest was fourteen.

Marianne and John
Five kids. 
 

Marsha and Richard
Nine kids.

Mary and Robert

Four kids. A daughter has four kids and is currently in college to finish her degree. 

Melissa and Henry

Six kids.

Rachel and Bennett

Six kids.

Samantha and Thomas
Eight kids.

Sarah and Ryan
Five kids.

Tamara and Lewis
Six kids.  

*Since people change, it's possible these statistics could change at some point for our contributing families, but they met the criteria when we first contacted them unless otherwise noted.