Large Family Ramblings

Hey, guess what?  We have a large family.  There is even one website that defines us a a "Mega-family"!  Isn't that a hoot!?

I guess when our last two kids joined our family and we had to sell my beloved Toyota Sienna and buy the big, ugly van (aka Monstro), I figured we had crossed over.  But. like anything, you get used to it and it becomes normal.  The only time we feel large is when we are all traipsing through the supermarket or Walmart. People do tend to stare.

People are fascinated, and will often ask how we do things.  We do have to do things a little differently than smaller families.  For example, counting is a huge part of my parenting day.  I never, ever, ever start the car until I've counted heads.  I'm totally paranoid of leaving someone behind!  When we're out at a park, I count constantly 1 - 7 (or 1 - 8 if my grand daughter is with us).

Spontaneity doesn't really happen anymore.  It takes too much preparation!  Seriously - "Hey mom! Lets have lunch at the park"  is followed by roughly an hour of making and packing lunch for 9 or 10 people plus water and wipes.

Extracurricular activities are on a rotation basis.  Right now we have 2 in baseball.   Three more are in a running club.  This is the first time we've done more than one sport at a time.  We'll see how it works out.

Screen time is severely limited.  Each child gets 30 minutes of video game time.  Siblings are not allowed to watch each other.  I've been accused of being a control freak over this.  But when you stop to think that if each watches the other play games, that's 3 1/2 hours of staring at a computer/tv screen each day.  Then, they want to watch a movie on top of that.

We've actually been asked by El Pollo Loco to call ahead with our order.  Ha!  We now go to KFC instead.

Laundry must be done every day.  Usually 2 loads.  Unless there are towels and bedding.  Then there are more.

I insist the kids pick up after themselves.  If each person left one toy on the floor, I would be tripping over them constantly.  Legos really hurt too!

Only one cup per person, per day.  As it is, we wash one load in the dishwasher every day.  Sometimes it's more depending on what we've been cooking.

Organization is key though.  Some of my friends laugh and call me OCD because of the way we live.  But without the schedules and routines, chaos would reign in my home.  Okay, it still does.  But to a lesser extent.

Sometimes I look at friends who have fewer kids and I wonder if my kids are missing out.  My friends can easily go on trips or buy cool things for their kids.  My kids do look with longing on those things that their friends have.

But in the end, the stuff will end up broken and discarded or at a yard sale.  The really valuable things are the relationships they have with each other.  One day the kids will realize that too.  We are richer by far than almost anyone else I know!