Reply to Does anyone have 5 kids these days? What’s it like raising them

Forum Index » General Parenting Discussion

Reply to "Does anyone have 5 kids these days? What’s it like raising them "

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous]We have five.  Mine are 30, 27, 25, 23, and 18.  I miss the craziness of a house full of young children. I really love our big crazy family.  I am a little (or a lot) OCD about keeping the house clean and organized.  I think that really helped.  I drove my kids nuts sometimes and they still make fun of me about it.  But if the house is always tidy, it makes staying organized a lot easier.  It was loud and busy and ridiculously chaotic sometimes.   But it was also so much fun.  Our home was full of inappropriate, inside jokes.  Over the top dramatics.  And love.  Always love.

This idea that my older kids helped raised the younger ones is laughable.  I guess maybe it happens in some homes.  Certainly not in ours.  They did occasionally babysit. They often argued over who was going to babysit because I paid really well.  We bought each of the kids an inexpensive used car the summer before their junior years in high school.  We paid for gas and insurance.  In exchange, I expected them to occasionally help out with errands.  They were all really busy once they started driving so they really couldn't help out a whole lot. My oldest played football and basketball from kindergarten through his senior year in high school.  My second rowed crew and was an Eagle Scout.  My third was a drama and chorus kid.  My fourth rowed crew year round (in Florida) and my youngest was in symphonic and marching band.  Their afternoons were always really full.

The kids fought like typical siblings when they were little, especially my girls.   The girls are best friends now and share an apartment.  I never would have guessed that would happen.  All five are close.  They plan their visits home so that they can all be here together whenever possible.  I've had all five home at the same time for the last two Christmases which has been amazing.  My oldest is married with two beautiful babies.  Last Christmas was so much fun!

Big families are not for everyone.  I had my first baby when I was 22 years old.  I was pregnant at my college graduation.  Being young parents made it easier.  I'm only 53.  We are empty nesters normally - my youngest is home due to COVID.  I think it would be really hard to raise five kids as an older parent. I stayed at home until my youngest started school then went back part-time.  I don't see how we could have done it with two parents working full time.  Running a home with five children is a full time job if you do it correctly.  We never had any kind of help.  My days were very busy.

Also, we are not Catholic.  We are not Mormon.  We are not Hispanic.  DH and I are both more spiritual than religious.  I'm more the witchy, sage burning, spell casting, metaphysical type.  I would bet money that our environmental footprint is smaller than most on this board.  We grow about 70% of our fruits and vegetables.  We have always recycled and reused.  We compost almost everything.  We create very little trash each week because we are so careful.   I hope I taught my children a deep love for Gaia and respect for all the creatures that we share her with. [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics