Nuclear Family: Difference between revisions

[[File:Nuclear_Family_8072Nuclear Family 8072.jpg|frame|The Literal Nuclear Family]]

* In ''[[The Phantom Tollbooth]]'', the main character visits Digitopolis, the land of numbers, and tries to find a way to Infinity. After giving up, he encounters half a boy, cut right down the middle (the other half just ''not there''). Turns out he's the .58 child in 2.58 children for the average family -- luckilyfamily—luckily the average went up a bit, because it was painful being only .47. Fortunately, the average family also has 1.3 automobiles, and since he's the only one who can drive three-tenths of a car, he gets to use it all the time.

If you want to break out of the 2-or-3-kids trope, you could try going much, much larger. This can be justified via religious beliefs (Catholics and Mormons being just two of the groups whose beliefs promote large families), but then again it doesn't have to be. However, if the big family is not the ''main'' family for the story, it's almost certainly a religious reason -- andreason—and almost certainly most or all of the kids are treated as a unit, not as individuals; they may even dress and look identical except by age and gender.

=== Then again, you could go for moderation: ===