Brady Bunch

English

Etymology

A reference to the television sitcom The Brady Bunch, which featured the joining of two single-parent families.

Noun

Brady Bunch (plural Brady Bunches)

1. A large number of children in a family; a large family.
   • 2006, Bill McKibben, The Age of Missing Information‎^[1], page 67:

     And even if individuals can afford it, it's also become clear that the planet probably can't — that the world, were it composed of a billion Brady Bunches, would buckle under the environmental strain.

   • 2007, Jessica Inclan, Believe in Me‎^[2], page 12:

     I haven't heard anything from Sariel or Rufus, not that I hear anything from those two and their respective Brady Bunches except for reports on babies and pregnancy stages.

2. Children in a family who are from previous partnerships of the parents; a family that includes children from previous partnerships of the parents.
   • 1984, Jane O'Reilly, The Girl I Left Behind‎^[3], page 60:

     The other families group themselves differently: empty nests, single parents, working mothers, spinsters with cats, curmudgeons with canes, the Brady bunches, reconstituted households of halves, steps, formers, and presents.

   • 2002, Center for the Study of the Child, Oakland Community College, Witness, volume 16, page 127:

     I have only one child gone and not a gaggle like the Kennedys, like the Brady Bunches of steps and halves of children that went off wholesale with her, so I suppose I don't have as much anger.