Slice and I have been family-sitting this week while my parents are on a little vacation. Playing mom and dad has definitive advantages, such as:
Free food
Dishwasher
Warm house
A bed 3x the size of ours (both good and bad)
Showers stay warm for longer than 4 minutes
Television
Reliable Internet
Bugling at 6:30 every morning to wake us up for family scripture study
Sounds like paradise, right? I mean, who doesn’t want to wake up to an 11-year-old playing Revelie?
The week has also been an eye-opener for Slice, though I’m not sure exactly why, because we’ve been through this before. Maybe because different people are living at home – dynamics always change with different family members – or it’s not summer anymore? I think Slice finally understands why I “play mom” anytime I'm around my younger siblings....old habits die hard.
So I've been thinking, it's impossible for anyone who doesn't come from a large family (in my world, 8 or more children is large) to understand what it’s like to grow up in one. We laugh at the media’s portrayal of food, mansions, vacations and chaos – because kids are NOT cheaper by the dozen.
One of my fondest memories from childhood is nothing more than a snippet. I am standing at our kitchen table, slicing strawberries. My parents, siblings and several neighborhood kids (they just couldn’t stay away) line the kitchen counter, performing various steps in the jam-making process. We are laughing, joking as we work to add food to our storage. As we work through our lives together.
The first time I heard of someone's mother canning on her own I wanted to cry. That image sprang to my mind, reminding me what I love most and what I want for my future family. It's rarely easy, often a struggle in self-control, certainly never boring. Slice has witnessed all this.
All around, I think it’s been an educational experience.
i've totally been thinking about how many kids i want now that i have one. and how soon in-between. what can i handle? What does the Lord have in mind for me? It's overwhelming to think about. Pretty sure it won't be 15 or something of the like, i mean, look at me! lol. but i look at my mom's 9 siblings and how much fun the girls have together and i want that for my kids. sigh. but then again, me and my three siblings are so much closer than brian and his 5... confusing.
ReplyDeleteThank you! It actually makes a huge difference ;)
ReplyDeletemy typing skills leave much to be desired.
ReplyDeleteAnything over 4 kids is a big family. We really don't have that many family farms anymore. I think mothers and fathers should be the moms and dads and not the older siblings. (even though my brothers may think I don't practice that sentiment.)
Hmmm...very interesting T.R. Do you mean that family farms are the only reason to have large families? That may have been the case once upon a time.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have seen some pretty strange families (OK, I'm related to some) where aunts and uncles are younger than their nephews. But especially in your family, it seems like the older brothers raised the younger just as much as the parents did.