Labradors & children

fletcher99

We have a lab. She is lovely and we have trained her to a good standard. If you have small kids I'd recommend an adult lab as pups are very bouncy. Ours is 7 but we got her when she was 5 having had no training so still a bit excitable. And I wouldn't trust her near smaller kids incase she knocked them over.
They need lots of attention and exercise and like any dog will destroy stuff of bored.
Also depends on your kids- some kids are great with bigger dogs and have the confidence to say no and give dog commands but other kids just scream at the dog so dog gets wound up and jumps at them.
Labs are probably best family dog as very unlikely to be aggressive- although will mouth, but we give our dog stuff to carry and she loves helping round house. They are also relatively easy to train as food motivated and love to please
Be aware there's 2 types. Show type which are the fatter ones, and are calmer and less active and there's working types which are skinnier and need tons of walking and activity and can be hard work.
Any dog can be a good family pet if you are prepared to train the dog and treat it well and also teach your kids to respect the dog.
Our lab loves her walks but will also snooze on the sofa till I'm ready. Some days she gets 20mins, other days she gets 3hrs and some days she may go all day before a walk. All dogs are different tho. Just make sure you see what parents are like if getting a pup.
Golden retrievers are a lot calmer than labs and very family friendly if you want to look at them too

yellowbear

We have a 2yo old lab. Got her when she was 9 weeks. My youngest was 5.5.
She was VERY bouncy when younger (still is to an extent), but has never jumped at the kids. She very rarely jumped up at me or my husband. However, it took 18 months to stop her jumping up at MIL. Although that was mostly MIL's fault as she wouldn't ignore her til she was calm and made her excitement worse.
Very easy to train. Like kaz2904, my daughter is fab with her - my boys aren't fussed so she tends to ignore them in favour of my daughter.
I would say training the kids is most important - they need to know what's acceptable and what isn't.
Eg, leaving the dog alone when she's on her bed or lying quietly (hah!) on the floor.
For walks, she has at least one 3 mile walk a day, usually two or three depending on who's doing what.
She has never mouthed us, even when very young and teething although my dining chair legs have plenty of teeth marks on them!