Why big is better for kids Illustration: Sturt Krygsman Source: TheAustralian WHEN I was a kid attending a Catholic school in country Victoria in the 1960s, there were a lot of big families. A big family then was eight kids. Including parents, that's 10 people in a single house. How on earth did they do it? How did the mother manage washing for 10 people in an era that predated automatic washing machines and the tumble dryer? She was either washing all day, every day or personal hygiene standards weren't as high then. I was No 5 in a family of six kids. Our house had three bedrooms, one bathroom and, until the sewerage "went through," an outside loo. We also had an outside laundry we called the "wash house." Hot water for a weekly bath had to be heated in a water cylinder that stood in the bathroom corner. On a daily basis you washed with water heated from a kettle that sat on a combustion stove and which was carried to a bathroom basin. I might also add that bathwater was so precious that successive kids used the same water. Or was that just us? I feel sick thinking about it. Only rich people and Americans on television had showers. We had four boys in bunk beds in one room. Fantastic! I had the top bunk. My older brother below would wake me or, more likely, merely amuse himself by kicking the wire base that held my mattress. I am sure there are times I went close to hitting the ceiling. It was so much fun. However, it wasn't just immediate families that were big. Big families tended to have big extended families. Families of eight kids would be related to other families of eight kids. And everyone in these family conglomerates looked the same. Red hair. Freckles. Same eyes. It was freaky: like they all came from the same mould. Today a big family is three or more kids. Every kid has their own bedroom. And the kids' bathroom is separate to mum and dad's. No one thinks twice about having a loo inside the house. I don't want to gross you out but has Generation Y ever thought what people did before the invention of toilet paper? I'm not sure when this product hit the mass market but I would put it at the late 1960s. There is something wondrous about being at the tail-end of a big family. Lots of older siblings is like having your very own cheer squad. Big brothers and sisters can have an impact that lasts a lifetime - from the perspective of youth, an older sibling can appear to be oh-so-sophisticated. When I was 10 and my brother was 13, we were transfixed by television footage of the pole vault at the Mexico City Olympics. My brother, who was quite athletic for his age, said: "I'm going to have a go at that." So he went out to the backyard, took one of dad's bamboo fishing rods, and in a single attempt pole-vaulted the side fence into our neighbour's backyard. He landed on his feet and nonchalantly clambered back without really saying much. It was as if this was no big deal. But I was in awe. He was my role model. As far as I am concerned, Gen Y can have their separate bedrooms, their new as opposed to hand-me-down clothes, their inside toilets with toilet paper as well as their hot daily showers. But what Gen Y - and I suspect all successive generations - will never know is the warm and lasting tribal embrace that comes only from being part of a large family. Bernard Salt is founder of the Facebook page Decent Obsessions