Everywhere I go I bring my 4 kids. On virtually every outing I have someone say something to the effect of "Boy, you've sure got your hands full!" I usually reply with a smile and say something like, "Oh, sometimes, but usually it's not bad!" Every once in awhile someone gives a dirty look, or makes the "You should make your husband get snipped!" type of comments. And every once in awhile I have someone say how great they think it is that I have "so many" children.
Today I had the distinct pleasure of having that happen not once, but twice. I think they were both Vietnam vets, too. One most certainly was, his hat was proof enough. The other had lost a leg, which I know could have been due to anything but around here there are a lot of veterans so it's a 50/50 chance he was. The latter spoke to us on our way out of Church. There were, aside from the 5 of us, literally only 7 other people attending the noon Holy Day Mass. (I am hoping a lot more people attended the evening Mass.) Mine were the only children in attendance, and I was the only person there south of 50. It was kind of hard to miss us. He smiled and said we reminded him of his daughter's family; she has 5 children, the oldest in high school.
The other gentleman encountered us in the McDonalds at WalMart. I was waiting in line and he came up behind us and started chatting up my kids. Then he asked me if we were going to have any more. I told him "Maybe." He smiled and said he liked that, and that it's always God's decision. I agreed and said it wasn't in my immediate plans but we weren't ruling it out. Then he started talking to a woman and her daughter (who had to be around 14). They admitted the girl was spoiled "because she's the only girl." And then they said there would be no more children for them, "because mommy can't have any more children." He started talking about how it's up to God. It was kind of funny to watch and I was glad I was on his side of it all.
This is terribly composed but I have a child kicking my arms and I'm too lazy to go back over everything. I just wanted to put this out there before I forget it. It's nice to have some positive reinforcements out there when so often people are incredulous or give us flack for having "a lot" of kids.
3 comments:
That is nice. :-) People sometimes seem surprised when I say we'd like to have more, because they seem to think we want to stop with one of each. But every now and then I get the nice comments from people who had 6-7 kids and think it's wonderful.
"It's nice to have some positive reinforcements out there when so often people are incredulous or give us flack for having "a lot" of kids."
Amen.
BUT... you don't even have a lot of kids! (says the single 23-year-old...)
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