large families.

Maybe not 10, but 4 is ideal :-)

JA does write that Catherine was left to shift on her own, and yet I see her getting a lot of attention from her parents where learning is concerned, with her father teaching her numbers etc. and her mother French.

This is more than what can be said of the Bennet parents with only half the number or Sir Walter with about 1/3 the number or even the Bennet children.

In a large family the older tend to 'look after' the younger ones, and we are told that Catherine was;
'... very kind to the little ones,