Parenting a large brood means you're used to dealing with a very specific set of challenges and joys — usually ones only other big families will understand.
If you've had a lot of babies, chances are...
1. The Labor & Delivery nurse waved you off saying, "See you in a few years!" (Yes, that actually happened to me.)
2. It's completely possible for your baby never to be set down all day, just transferred from one pair of arms to another.
3. Family memberships, kids eat free deals, and occupancy codes in hotel rooms are a joke to you.
4. You're regularly stopped in public and told "You have your hands full" when less than half of your children are with you.
6. You've been hearing crying (both real and imagined) 24/7 for 10+ years. Instead of phantom crying, you sometimes hear phantom silence.
7. There's always somebody in the bathroom and there's always something wrong with the toilet.
8. Your baby can sleep through a thunderous piano performance, a toddler bear hug, and people fighting over a kazoo three feet away from her head... all at the same time.
7. There's always somebody in the bathroom and there's always something wrong with the toilet.
8. Your baby can sleep through a thunderous piano performance, a toddler bear hug, and people fighting over a kazoo three feet away from her head... all at the same time.
9. You have this doormat.
10. Your toddler has a preferred hierarchy of people to go to when you've told him no.
12. You're okay with waiting 10 minutes to see if the crying baby will settle down on his own. Actually, better set a timer so you don't forget about him.
13. Everything your pediatrician says to you starts with "You probably already know this, but..."
15. Instead of going directly to mom or dad when he has trouble operating a toy, your toddler just stands in the middle of the room and yells "Can somebody help me?"
16. You've stopped attending curriculum night and any other kind of parent orientation night for the schools. You've been there longer than the principal, anyway.
17. You dismiss all methods of sleep training. You realize this is just a phase and the baby will learn to sleep eventually, no matter what you do.
If you've got a big family, you know firsthand that having a lots of babies is a grand, messy adventure that sometimes seems bizarre to other people. But even with the decades of sleep deprivation, you wouldn't give it up for the world.
5 comments:
Your doormat 😂😂 love this!
I don't know if you will have another baby but, to be clear, I'm ready whenever you are. I've been giving this some thought and have decided that you should go with twins next time. A boy and a girl to keep the genders even in your family. The reason for twins, beyond the equal boy/girl split, is that I consider you the reigning authority on motherhood but realized that there is a rather significant gap in your expertise/experience insofar as you have not mothered multiples. Yet. This is easily rectified with at least one multiple birth. I'm also ok if you decide that triplets or quads would work better or if you go ahead and have a couple multiple births. If you have any odd-numbered multiples (such as triplets or quintuplets) obviously the boy/girl split will become uneven but that, too, is easily managed and sorted out with your next pregnancy! You can see that I have given this considerable thought and have worked out, for you, all possible challenges. This leaves you with the easy part. Because family planning is a personal decision that others should not rudely remark upon, ask nosey questions, or advise about particularly in terms of size, I am leaving it up to you and, to a lesser degree, Phillip, to determine the number of multiples you will have. One thing I have really learned from your blog is that unasked for advice in such matters is not appreciated. - Kathy Young
It's pretty much my favorite possession.
You know, I think you're right. You've given me something to think about!
I've been eyeing that doormat for months! I keep holding off because I'm afraid it will get ruined too quickly .we have a ton of construction going on right now, I'll wait until after it's over I guess. 😁
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