I know, I was just watching the scene where he's trying to hire a babysitter for 12, even though his three oldest kids are teenagers (one is an adult, actually). Sure, 9 is still a lot (don't they say, "8 is enough"?) but still!

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nah, all they had to do was help out a little during the hectic moments. it really wasn't much to ask, especially for Welling and Duff. but then if they did then there'd have been no "conflict" and no film. though to be honest that may not have been a bad thing.
together the ants can crush the elephant.

You don't think the older siblings should have some responsibilities and be able to help their parents with some of the chores and babysitting?
Except that isn't what Tom and Kate were expecting Tom and Kate basically wanted their older children to do the job of raising their younger children so that the parents could focus on their own careers.

In all fairness, that's not exactly what saramacg09 is saying. She (I say 'she' cause I see Sara in their ID name) is saying that it's not fair for the two oldest living-in-the-house children to help raise the other kids while their parents have time-consuming careers. Babysitting is one thing, but doing the parenting job is completely different. I think we are supposed to get the impression that Charlie and Lorraine, and all the kids, do help with chores (albeit begrudgingly), but they have to be able to be teenagers, too.
I did get the impression that maybe Charlie and Lorraine were letting their dad drown just so Tom would call the mom and tell her to come back, though.
All of my life, trying to understand And I miss you and I love you. That's true - The Kooks

Umm, okay. What kind of household were you raised in? You don't think the older siblings should have some responsibilities and be able to help their parents with some of the chores and babysitting? It's not dropping their lives, it's helping out around the house.

I agree it would have been nice if the older siblings would have helped out (which they seemed to do even if it wasn't shown), but Nora had a career and it isn't fair for Tom to ask Charlie and Loraine to drop their lives to help accommodate the new career he decided he wants. Being a parent means giving things up for your kids. Tom and Kate chose to have 12 children which means they chose t limit their career and life choices to accommodate the dozen lives they brought into this world so it isn't fair that Tom and Kate expected their children to take care of themselves so they could have a life and this was realized by Kate and Tom which is why Kate cut her tour short and Tom quit his job.

I came on here to say the exact same thing! That part really bugs me because there aren't even 12 kids in the house! Even if he had said eleven, that still didn't explain the current situation that well. As you said, only about 7 of them needed looking after.
I get Nora had her own life and career and she was busy, but Charlie and Lorraine didn't seem too busy to help with looking after the kids.
Oh yeahthat just happened.