The scene takes place at the entrance of a busy supermarket in the upper area of Barcelona: the automatic doors open and let in a young, blonde mother with her five children. One, a baby, is carried in a backpack, on her chest. To another, in a stroller. The other three run around her. “Don't disperse,” she tells them, in a calm voice. People look at them. Some give way to them, as if they were royalty. In Spain, a country with one of the lowest birth rates in the world (in 2022 the average number of children per woman was 1.19), large families are becoming a rare bird. In a way, that mother surrounded by her five children represents an exotic species, an ecosystem in extinction.
According to data from the Ministry of Social Affairs, in 2022 Spanish families within the “large” category totaled 795,923. However, the criteria for entering this ranking have changed a lot: today three children—whether common or not—are already considered a large family (families of this type total 437,617, more than half of the total). Other cases are also considered, such as the disability of a child or orphanhood.
The figures for the so-called “special category”, with five children or more, are much more discreet: family units with five descendants total 15,992. With six, 3,727. Families that have seven children barely exceed a thousand, while those that have eight, nine or “10 or more children” are estimated at 433, 185 and 167, respectively. Catalonia heads the ranking of large families by autonomous community, followed by Andalusia and the Community of Madrid.
For the doctor in Sociology Gerardo Meil, professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid, if the fertility data in Spain are analyzed, by rank: “What is seen is that the proportion of those born in the order 'four children and more', It's getting smaller." It is a reflection of an “extremely low” fertility rate, which does not change due to cyclical effects.
That is, reproductive behavior no longer responds to the dynamic that when there are periods of crisis it decreases and when there is recovery, it increases. “This happened in 2007-2008, when there was an increase in fertility both due to greater immigration and national mothers,” says Meil. But with the crisis, fertility fell and continued to decline, despite the recovery of 2014-15 and the new increase in immigration. “Women did not recover positions of motherhood,” she summarizes.
This situation has meant that "very large families have become what you call 'exotic species'," he agrees, "although I wouldn't say they arouse admiration, but rather interest or surprise." For this specialist in the analysis of family life, admiration would be linked to “an identification with that model of having many children.” And that, he says, “contradicts the reproductive behaviors that the data reflects.”
However, in the parallel universe of social networks, large families abound. And if they are not admired, at least they fascinate many. Within the category of 'influencer' mothers, mothers with extended families have become a rising sub-category. “Without a doubt, the trend of large families on Instagram has been increasing in recent years. Followers are often attracted to the authenticity and emotional connection they can experience when following them,” explains Sergio Barreda, director of the influencer agency Keeper Experience.
This agency has worked with Verdeliss, an influencer and YouTuber from Pamplona, mother of eight children who, with 1.4 million followers on Instagram, is one of the queens of social networks in Spanish. Her fans applaud the fact that she broadcasts her births live, tells of her family vacations, or celebrates the birthdays of her children. Despite the enormous work that eight offspring theoretically provide, she has time to run marathons in San Francisco and Australia, advertise products of all kinds and take charity trips to Africa. However, the photos that are most successful are the ones of her with her children: “I love being a mother,” she writes.
Jesús and Ana, creators of the @unalocuradefamilia account, which has more than four hundred thousand followers on Instagram, also say they love motherhood and fatherhood. The couple has eight children and one more on the way. Their posts (showing the predictor or with a new baby in their arms) receive thousands of comments. There are praiseworthy ones (“Impressive!”, “Children are happiness”) and critical ones (“Irresponsible,” “You haven't given birth, you have invoiced”). As with Verdeliss, attention is drawn to the fans who know the children perfectly ("How tall Eide is!", "And look? You haven't seen her in a while...") and those who worry about the economy. familiar. Fewer are those that censor the exposure of minors on the networks.
Similar comments are received by Irene Alonso, who defines herself as @soyunamadrenormal on her account and Instagram, although she has twelve children. Between her and her husband, also an Instagramer, they have almost 200,000 followers who follow the family's daily life: vacations, back to school, ironing... More sophisticated is Paloma Blanc (@7paresdekatiuskas) who describes herself as “survivor and happy mother of 9 children.” Blonde, slender and with green eyes, she lives in tidy houses and has almost two hundred thousand followers. Her posts are a succession of images of happiness, at family events such as trips, baptisms and communions, sprinkled with advertisements from brands that sponsor her.
For all of them, children undoubtedly come with bread under their arms. “Yes, being a mother can undoubtedly be a factor that helps a person gain followers on Instagram, since many people can identify with the experiences and challenges of motherhood,” says Sergio Barreda. Is this plus greater if you have many children?: “A large family can increase the attractiveness of an Instagram account, since it is less common and can generate more interest and curiosity on the part of the audience,” he answers.
For Barreda, women like the aforementioned Verdeliss and Paloma Blanc or the Catalan Rosa Pich, (linked to the Opus Dei and mother of eighteen children), are an example: “Of the fascination with large families, which I believe may be due to natural curiosity. of people to learn about different lifestyles and family experiences.”
"Today we are in a society in which we have few children and they are highly valued, so if you have four, five, seven!... It is as if you had four, five, seven Mercedes," says sociologist Vicent Borràs, professor at the Department of Sociology of the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Children, he adds, today have “a hypervalue”, material and emotional: “Consequently, if they have become an object of consumption and having them is what gives the most satisfaction in the world, then imagine having four, five or twelve …You are in another dimension!”
But for Borràs, a researcher at the Center for Sociological Studies on Everyday Life, the phenomena are not just one: "We must not forget that in Spain we have a sociocultural base that makes us a very pro-family culture." A family, he points out, which is also the nucleus of solidarity: “We trust more in the family than in the state: we are not a culture of citizenship, with a more Protestant ethic, where what matters is worth, not that you belong to a clan".
In short, he summarizes: “We have those Catholic, Latin cultural bases that enhance and value the family. And if it is numerous, it gives us status. It's like when you see photos of a Christmas meal: the more people at the table, the more value is given to that moment ("How beautiful!", "What a table!", "How many of you!"...), no matter how fed up you are with everything. A lot of family equals a lot of success, because family comes first,” he reiterates.
And that is reflected on the networks, of course: “And if on top of that she is fantastic and you run marathons, then that's the best, because the other side of the coin of having children is not having time for anything, you can't take care of yourself... But these women, no. "They don't show the other side, just the window." Without forgetting, adds Borràs, the idea that their children are better educated: “They do not have the figure of the only child: that child who has everything and rules. In these families you cannot have ten 'emperors', so the image is that the children are more mature, more autonomous, which provokes even more admiration."
In any case, as Professor Gerardo Miel points out, large families also cause rejection. In part, because they are still linked to Francoism whose ideology, national Catholicism, admired and encouraged them. In poor Spain at that time, a high birth rate was a tool to escape underdevelopment: “I think that the older generation still remembers the birth rate awards, the Node and that type of things…” says Miel. "But I think that, on the part of young people, the rejection of a family of this type is basically due to the difficulties, if not the impossibility, of reconciling work and family life."
Furthermore, this model, adds the sociologist: “It is associated with an option of exclusive dedication for women. We call that a conservative model, which is a completely legitimate life option, but with which the majority of the population does not identify." How do you explain then that these 'influencers' succeed? Beyond the cultural weight of the family, he responds: “There is a 'curiosity' factor - to use a neutral term -, without forgetting that it would also be behind the appearance of anti-feminism and anti-abortionism, linked to the growth of the extreme right, a ideology for which those mothers who do not work and dedicate themselves to the family fit the model of what a woman should be.”
