There was one family with 12 at the chapel I used to attend.  Another with 10, another with 9.

A friend at my chapel just gave birth to her 13th child about a month before our daughter was born.  We have 2 very young families with 6 each.  I believe one mother might be pregnant again but I'm not sure.  One family has 9.  We have 7.  At our previous NO church, there was a trad family with 10.

Personal observation from a former Protestant:  Many of these evangelical families don't nurse their babies for long periods of time or they don't nurse at all.  Their fertility returns after about 3 or 4 months and they fall pregnant again having babies every year.  I completely breastfeed, as do all the women I know at my chapel.  We were just talking about it.  I don't even feed my babies solid food until they really want it at about 9 or 10 months old.  I nurse until the babies wean themselves.  As a result, my fertility returns at the earliest when the baby is 11 or 12 months.  Once my fertility didn't return for 18 months.  

I also do genealogy.  These HUGE families of 18 or 20 are HIGHLY unusual unless many babies die in infancy.  I have read literally thousands of census records and where all children survive infancy, the families are usually no larger than 10 (unless a man had 2 or more wives).  It makes sense really as a woman can only have children for a short period of time.  Even IF she married at 12, she'd would have about 30 years of fertility.  Naturally, most babies come every 2 or 3 years.  

What these evangelicals do many times is stop nursing at about 4 months.  I know some who intentionally quit nursing at 4 or 5 months just so they WOULD fall pregnant again.  For many of them, their mega-families are a "red badge of courage."  

NO Catholics contracept just like secular families do.  I know plenty of women who have been sterilized or their husbands have been sterilized.  I know plenty who take the pill.  One of my friends, after her fourth child was born, couldn't handle the "stress."  She takes the pill.  I have one friend who encouraged her married daughter to take birth control pills because they didn't "need" any babies.  

Yes, it appears that the Duggars are "on top" (no pun intended) and are the largest family in America:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/19_Kids_and_Counting

Interesting quote:

"The Duggars raise their children using a buddy system, wherein an older sibling is assigned to a younger sibling and assists in their primary care."

As a parent of 5 children, I do not know that I agree with that statement.  We have our older siblings "help out" when they are absolutely needed, but they have no assigned duties when it comes to taking care of our two youngest children.  As parents, that's our responsibility.

NO Catholics contracept just like secular families do.  I know plenty of women who have been sterilized or their husbands have been sterilized.  I know plenty who take the pill.  One of my friends, after her fourth child was born, couldn't handle the "stress."  She takes the pill.  I have one friend who encouraged her married daughter to take birth control pills because they didn't "need" any babies.  

My priest said more catholics would end up dieing in mortal sin and going to hell because of birth control.

Anyways, a family at my parish has 9(21-4yo or so)

There are plenty of larger families in the Trad world --

I agree with what's been said about the Duggars, and Protestants in general.

There's a difference between having the children God sends you, and having as many children as possible.

If you want to "see how many you can have", you'll do things like not breastfeed. Breastfeeding delays the return of fertility; that's a scientific fact.

For the virtue of "Resignation to God's will regarding family size", the Duggars are the "excess", while Double-Income-No-Kids are the defect. I go for the virtuous mean, which is "between AND ABOVE" the two extremes.

As an aside, with any virtue it's not about "averaging" the two extremes (vices) -- but going between AND ABOVE them.

For example, you shouldn't be miserly on odd-numbered days and wasteful on even-numbered days. The virtue of poverty goes above both extremes.

Same for all the other vices/virtues.

At my chapel we have one family that has 10 kids.  If the mother is the woman that I think it is, I should point out that she is extraordinarily youthful-looking.  I point this out because in our worldly society, women are worried that having kids will turn them into Medusa prematurely.  The reality is that what really ages you prematurely is self-obsession and selfishness.  The girls in their twenties in Los Angeles look like old prostitutes sometimes, with scratchy voices, all wrinkly and used-up.  Partying and drugs and casual sex take a toll far worse than having lots of kids ever could.

It's the same in the Novus Ordo.  The worldly-minded ( which includes many in Novus Ordo, if not most ) go about everything backwards.  The stress doesn't come from the kids only; it comes from certain expectations that they have about life, which causes them to do their own will instead of God's.  If you start out with the attitude that kids are a burden imposed on you by the Church, you're basically admitting you really don't want them.  You're going to be constantly unhappy and ungrateful.  The next step, naturally, is birth control.  Everything starts with the attitude, more specifically, with the true faith, which is love.  There is no grace there, also, this should always be remembered.  

Jehanne said:

As a parent of 5 children, I do not know that I agree with that statement.  We have our older siblings "help out" when they are absolutely needed, but they have no assigned duties when it comes to taking care of our two youngest children.  As parents, that's our responsibility.

Wow, do the parents here agree with this?  Because another point I wanted to make is that, the more kids you have, the more they can help raising each other, with the older kids having duties towards the younger.  If this is how your family is run, then it would almost be less stressful than having one or two kids.  The family would almost run itself in a hierarchy, with the father as the CEO and the mother as the Managing Director.  

I have a 5 year old living with us, and every morning he makes his bed.  Puts the covers on, very neatly one at a time, pulls the wrinkles out then places all his stuffed animals on the bed.  His other "job" is to put away the silverware when I am emptying the dishwasher.  

Other than that he is a handful, yesterday when my back was turned, he took the vent off the floor and decided to play golf, got the ball right into the floor vent and only Our Lord knows know where it is.  
A few days ago, in his "K" class they are teaching them how to tell time, so Sister turns the hands on the clock to show 12:00, 1:00, 2:00 etc., he decided to try it at home, climbed up and started turning the hands on the large wall clock we have.  My husband, looked, and said, how did those hands get all twisted up, on the clock.  I laughed all day about that one.