Mr Smith Has 4 Daughter's, Each Has 4 Brothers.

[sandyRoe]

How many kids has he got?
I answered 8 and was told I was wrong.
Any thoughts?

[Mamyalynne]

No Kids, only Children?

[bookbinder]

16

[Prudie]

I'd have gone with 8 too - each daughter has the same 4 brothers as the others after all.

[Mamyalynne]

Same two parents? Full brothers or half/step?

[david small]

20. 4x4=16+4=20.

[jim360]

I thought it would have been looking for the answer 8, too. In any other circumstance then any answer from 8, 12, 16, or 20 could be said to work.

[daisypotter]

8 seems right to me, what is the answer?

[sandyRoe]

I don't know the answer.
Maybe Mamya has it with, 'No kids, only children '.

[237SJ]

I would have said 8 too. Its the same 4 brothers for each daughter.

[JimF]

Assuming you mean "daughters" and not "daughter's", then he has 8 children.

However, this is not the usual form of this riddle, which is: Mr Smith has 4 daughters. Each of his daughters has a brother. How many children does Mr Smith have?

At this point, the answer is five - four daughters and one brother shared between them.

Alternatively, of course, the answer could be 4, since there's nothing to indicate that the boys are Mr Smith's...

[weecalf]

Who’s each that’s what bothers me is each smiths other brother ?So answer could be 4 and forget about Mr Each having 4 brothers it’s a red herring Im telling you .

[daisypotter]

^ If it's a red herring, the answer is probably five!

[pixie374]

It can only be 8. The usual question is that they have one brother each, so the answer is 5.

[Prudie]

Who said it was wrong?

[sandyRoe]

Prudie,
My niece. She asked the question and when I replied she said I was wrong

[Prudie]

Sandy I think you need to ask her why and what the right answer is to put us out of our misery :-)

[barry1010]

4 daughters, each one to a different mother. Each mother also has 4 sons.
So Mr Smith has 4 children assuming he hasn't fathered any of the brothers.
As we don't know how many boys he has fathered so the amount come be anything between 0 and 16, so the total amount of children could be anything between 4 and 20.

We don't know if he has goats, either.

[Patsy33]

0?
Past tense and present tense..

[pixie374]

It asks about brothers and sisters, not half-brothers/ sisters... so unless the answer is goats. I'm lost.

[sandyRoe]

Goats briefly crossed my mind, too.