Five kids doesn't feel to me like the ridiculous excess that might be imagined by someone with fewer. They don't feel like five kids. They feel like MY kids: my tall girl and my fuzzy buddy and my tiny girl and my trouble guy and my baby dude. They are not a nameless, seething mass; they are individual persons. While I don't expect anyone who doesn't know them to see that, it is ludicrous to imagine that I don't. No, I cannot help every one of them at the same time, and sometimes someone--even a very small someone--has to wait while someone else gets zoomed to the bathroom or sponged off the sidewalk. But, golly, the zooming and the sponging are what I'm here for. And that someone who's waiting? Well, more and more often that's what the rest of them are here for.
No one needs to worry that my five kids aren't getting all the love and attention kids need simply because there are five of them. They are far more endangered by my sloth on an easy afternoon than by my inability to be in two places at once in a tense (not to say catastrophic) moment.
8 comments:
I was thinking the same thing, that my six does not seem any more unmanageable than my two or three did. The dog, however, is another story. One of him is way harder than none of him.
This made me think of our Lord who has numbered the hairs of our head. He sees us all and knows us all. I know our insight is imperfect, but what a gift. :)
sigh. At this stage of mommying the "normal" two, they might as well be twenty.
And I agree, the dog is definately the hardest.
The "ridiculous excess" in circles I grew up in started at 7. For some reason 6 was acceptable.
Hmmm, and here we were thinking about getting a dog this summer...
I loved the cat until we had kids.
My rule is that we can think of getting a dog when there is only one baby in diapers (and none on the way).
I've observed people with one or two children who received way less love, care and attention than my 13.
Patience is a good skill for our children to learn.
Observing mom showing mercy and helping others is also a very important skill to learn. Mine were always somewhat understanding about waiting for mom to be able to help them..... except perhaps a hungry baby. I have not had complaints that mom is ignoring or neglecting when she needs to help someone, they have learned sharing.
Mom needing to help someone also gave my children the ability to show mercy, to a sibling that had to wait for mom. Mine have learned to step in and offer comfort and care to those who have to wait. Now not only do they come to their dad and I but they turn to one another for help with problems, even the one's in their 20's. This makes me happy.
Our Heavenly Father is always there taking care of all their needs, even when we can't.
I have to put in a good word for the dog..... we have a Golden Retriever, Ali, who is 18 months old and she has been the BEST dog we have ever owned. I used a lot of Cesar Millan ideas when we were training her and they work...... the main thing she has yet to learn is walking well on a leash and our 16 yr old is mastering that with her now. She is a joy and she is teaching my children responsibility and also how to care for others.
Debbie S
Yes. Thank you for reading my mind again. I was totally thinking lately that my hooligans, my very own hooligans, are in fact the best argument for this ridiculous lifestyle. (Also on some days the best argument against it, but we won't go there now.)
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