Are Large Families Better For Kids Than Small Families?

There's a ton of talk lately about whether large or small families are better for kids, with most people saying small families are "obviously" better. This comes on the heels of influencer Ballerina Farm sharing that she's pregnant with her 9th, after which she received pretty hard push back from some people on X. In this episode, I'll walk you through why you're probably thinking about large families wrong, and explain the family teams way of thinking about this where the larger the family, the larger the blessing. On this episode, we talk about:  0:00 Intro 1:15 Blindspots 4:26 Peers vs parents 7:08 Can you expect older children to "parent" younger siblings? 11:02 Living like a family TEAM Follow Family Teams:   Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams   Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: FREE 5 Day Email Series to Turn Your Family Into a Team: https://familyteams.com/transform/ Rebecca Reid X: https://x.com/RebeccaCNReid/status/2028157735892631620 ---  Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

One of the things we talk a lot about here at Family Teams is the idea of ASSETS over CAREERS. In other words, we've found it extremely beneficial in building family teams to find ways to build assets together - especially businesses. While it's not right for everyone, we think it's right for way more people than are currently doing it! Jeremy and Kristin Netting join us today to talk about how they've started building family assets, and it goes WAY beyond just "start a business". We're talking things like how to actually work with your family as a team, how to start training your kids young so they want to be involved, the power of local community and land, and how to navigate the cultural tension of "limiting" your kids' choices. Absolute must-listen if you're ready to break free from building another man's family assets and start building your own. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 4:37 Rethinking assets and careers as a family team 14:06 Doing things together to get used to building as a team 21:06 Building legacy assets 25:56 Land and local community 29:38 Have a big family! -- Resources Mentioned: Free PDF on Building Family Assets: https://familyteams.com/assets/ Join The Family Teams Accelerator: https://familyteams.com/accelerator/ -- Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com -- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

This episode is all about tips on how to train your kids in every stage of their development, from when they're really little, until they become teens and young adults. The idea is the same - train them up in the way they should go - but the methods are very different depending on age. Get ahead of the curve with this episode, and set yourself and your kids up for success from 0 to 18. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 0:38 What's at stake 2:16 Training Little Kids 14:43 Training Tweens 22:23 Training Teens and Young Adults 30:25 More Training Resources Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: Free Child Training Resource PDF: https://familyteams.com/train Family Teams Accelerator: https://familyteams.com/accelerator King Richard Movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9620288/ Black and White: The Way I See It by Richard Williams and Bart Davis: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1476704201 Whiplash Movie: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2582802/ --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

Listening to this episode and then taking some action could be the biggest peace-giving thing you've done in years. Training your children well is often the difference between "we're done having kids" and "every child we add is a joy and blessing". Grant and Kelly Stine completely changed the culture of their home in a very short amount of time by going all-in on training their children. They're our community coaches in the Accelerator this month, and give us some incredible, practical tools and stories in this episode. 👉 Join The Accelerator: https://familyteams.com/accelerator On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 2:33 Discipline vs. Training 8:37 Early Wins In Child Training 14:04 The First Thing We Successfully Trained 17:52 If You Think It Sounds Like Too Much Work... 23:43 Train Transitions 29:25 Guardrails For Peace and Freedom 31:03 Train Values Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: 👉 Join The Accelerator: https://familyteams.com/accelerator 12 Tips for Training Your Kids: https://familyteams.com/train Family Revision by Jeremy Pryor: https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578526123/ The Skill of Fatherhood: https://familyteams.com/resources/skilloffatherhood/ --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

The Bible tells parents to train their children, so you know we take that seriously here at Family Teams. But did you know there's a different between training your children and disciplining them? Discipline is part of the training process, but it's certainly not the whole thing. Learn the systems we use to train our kids to do everything from: - Cleaning up around the house before dinner, - Listen immediately and cheerfully - Quietly put themselves to bed - Cook meals - Clean up after meals ...and much, much more! On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 1:03 System vs philosophy 3:37 3 reasons why you need a framework 5:46 What should your training system look like? 14:02 How to get your kids to clean the house every day 16:49 Organic vs. systems thinking Resources Mentioned: Get our free "tips to train your child" PDF: https://familyteams.com/train Join the Accelerator to go deeper on this: https://familyteams.com/accelerator Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

Training your children is a Biblical mandate. But it's almost become a dirty word in 2026. "How dare you train your children! You're infringing on their liberty as individuals!" But this is part of God's expectation for parents - to raise them up in the way they should go. And that requires training. In this episode, we'll convince you briefly why training your kids is necessary (if you still need convincing), and then give you some practical tools and mindset shifts to start actually implementing this. Hit play and get decades of parenting experience in under 20 minutes. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 0:46 When Did Parenting Shift? 4:09 How Should Parents Think About Training Their Kids? 8:38 Reasons Why People Don't Train 10:27 How to Actually Train Your Kids 17:51 Getting On The Same Page As A Family Team Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: FREE Child Training PDF: https://familyteams.com/team Family Teams Accelerator: https://familyteams.com/accelerator --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

A few weeks ago, we posted a clip on Instagram of Jeremy reacting to a woman's explanation of her dad's unique discipline (which also included an incredible teaching on grace). It went pretty viral, being seen over half a million times on IG. Today, we're excited to bring it full circle by having Rachel Awtrey - the woman in the reel - on the podcast, to talk more about her father's wise discipline, fathering and mothering in general, and about her new book on finding joy, even in times of hardship and trial, to which she's no stranger. Listen in to hear why her dad's unique discipline actually worked, and how it's helped her in her own motherhood journey. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 0:41 Rachel's family background 3:4 The identity of "daughter" 5:54 Creativity in discipline 15:44 Discipline must be correlated to the level of connection 19:21 Love your life even when you don't love it all the time 21:59 Joy through bad news Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: The Reel Mentioned: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSjDs-qFDj7/ Love Your Life (Even If You Don't Like It All The Time): https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DJY765XF/ Real Talk With Rachel Awtry: https://www.rachelawtreypodcast.com/ Rachel Awtrey on IG: https://www.instagram.com/rachel.awtrey/ Rachel's Website: https://rachelawtrey.com/ --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

FREE PDF on how to start your own weekly family meal rhythm: https://familyteams.com/meal --- This is the final instalment in our Weekly Family Meal series on the podcast. We start diving deep into this topic inside the Family Teams Accelerator in February, so if you're ready to start using this tool and building a lifelong rhythm, make sure you join us to get real-time coaching as you implement it, and connect with other families! Today we're joined by Rhett and Ang Barbour, who have been doing an intentional, weekly, family meal for 20 years. You'll hear why it's the ONE rhythm that they never compromise on, and how they've used it to drastically shape their family culture. Listen in and get highly actionable tips on starting your own meaningful weekly meal to help build your family's culture. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 2:04 How the Barbours got into this rhythm 6:49 Getting started with little kids 16:34 How this has impacted Rhett and Ang personally at a soul level 25:22 The perfect Thanksgiving meal every week Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: FREE PDF on how to start your own weekly family meal rhythm: https://familyteams.com/meal Join the Family Teams Accelerator for hands on training: https://familyteams.com/accelerator --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

FREE PDF: How To Start A Weekly, Multigenerational Family Meal Rhythm: familyteams.com/meal --- This month we've talked about why having a weekly, multi-generational family meal is such a game changer for families who want to build a family team that lasts for generations. We've talked about how to make the meal fun and how to make it sustainable. Today we dive into how to maximize the meaning of this weekly family meal. And you might be surprised about how we've done that. This is a very counter-cultural thing to do, so make sure to listen to the full episode to get an idea of how this could look in your family, whether you're starting out as just a husband and wife with a small kid, or if you've got a large family and already have great relationships with the upstream generation. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 0:27 What gives a meal real meaning? 2:00 Spiritual meaning 4:23 How to stop it from feeling forced 11:03 Deep meaning for moms 14:00 Removing the meaning-killers 16:25 Combatting hustle and hurry 19:45 Not so logistical 22:55 If you don't have a great relationship with your parents... Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: FREE PDF: How To Start A Weekly, Multigenerational Family Meal Rhythm: familyteams.com/meal --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!

🎁 FREE PDF: How To Start A Weekly, Multigenerational Family Meal Rhythm: familyteams.com/meal --- This month we're talking about how to start having weekly, multi-generational family meals, because we are convinced that this is one of the most practical ways to turn your family into a multi-generational team on mission. Our goal is to have our kids want to be around this table every week now, while they're in our house, but also for decades after they have their own families. So, this week, we're talking about sustainability... How do you actually establish a tradition like this that you KEEP week after week, even when things are hard, and you're not 100% sure what you're doing? Out goal today is to help you find a bit of an easy button that you can press, even on a hard week, because a regular cadence and rhythm is the thing that will eventually turn this into a sustainable, long-term rhythm that changes your family forever. On this episode, we talk about: 0:00 Intro 1:06 Sustainable weekly family meals for decades 4:45 Easy and Wow 6:31 Mom's perspective 10:15 Sustainability killers 12:40 Recovering from a rough meal 14:45 To young moms Follow Family Teams: Facebook: https://facebook.com/famteams Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/familyteams Website: https://www.familyteams.com Resources Mentioned: 🎁 FREE PDF: How To Start A Weekly, Multigenerational Family Meal Rhythm: familyteams.com/meal --- Hi, welcome to the Family Teams podcast! Our goal here is to help your family become a multigenerational team on mission by providing you with Biblically rooted concepts, tools and rhythms! Your hosts are Jeremy Pryor and Jefferson Bethke. Make sure to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or YouTube so you don't miss out on future episodes!