Sibling Revelry

Mothers of many children get asked a lot of questions, the most common one, of course, being 'Are they all yours?' Mothers of many children ask each other a lot of questions, too, questions like, "How do you handle the laundry? What do you do about matching socks? What's a quick and easy breakfast?"

Another question we ask each other (and others ask us) is 'how do you make sure your children get some one on one time?' Several years ago I was astonished when a mother of ten answered that question by saying that she didn't think it was quite as big a deal as our culture made it. She went on to explain that while individual attention was important, she didn't see why we acted like that was all that really counted, and it was only a poor second best to read a story to two children instead of one, or to sit down and play a game with five children instead of only one, or to shuck corn or pick blueberries one on one instead of with mom and all the siblings. She pointed out that while sometimes a child certainly needs some private time with mom and dad, more often family times are enhanced by each additional sibling, not diluted by them.

Our seven children multiply the love, the fun, the laughs, and the snuggles. They don't divide it.

Anne at Holy Experience wrote a lovely post about this.

So did Spunky.