Thank you for this positive insight. I am one of six. My mother put each child in charge of his next younger sibling. Adults can screw up the life of even a single child from poor parentage, and this includes over-attentive helicopter parenting. We had a few rules and a hell of a lot of freedom to go outside as a pack for long days unsupervised. We learned by doing, by living, and it was fun. We always lived in the country in bayou country. We all swam in the bayous and in the Mississippi River as kids. Nobody drowned, nobody got bit by snakes, nobody got eaten by alligators. And nobody ever did anything outdoors alone. Big families can be great!