From The Past: December 17, 2007

Big families like The Waltons fascinate me. Any TV show with lots of brothers and sisters are always interesting to me. I know they are only TV shows, but I believe they give you a good idea of what it would be like to have that many people in one house. I think about it and it boggles my mind. The show Jon & Kate Plus 8 on TLC is reality TV. Kate has to cook, clean, do dishes, wash clothes, dress, and potty train EIGHT children. She does have help occasionally, but I cannot imagine how exhausted she must be at the end of each day. Then again, when they get a little older, things will be more fun. I love reality shows like Kids by the Dozen where they have lots of children; some are adults while others are just out of diapers.

I wouldn’t want that many children, but it’s fun to observe. Growing up, I always wanted a boy and a girl. I wanted to have the boy first because my best friend had a big brother and I thought that was neat, so I always wanted one of my kids to be the big brother. It’s funny that this is exactly how things happened. As you know, I have Andrew who is 18 and Ashley who is 11.

In my mom’s family, it was she and her sister and, in my family, I have one sister. My sister and I are four years apart. It’s hard to believe she is 31.

Kevin and I decided many years ago we didn’t want any more children. Our reasoning was; we didn’t want to start over. We were finished with car seats, diapers, potty training, teaching letters, and so on and we didn’t want to do it again. I’m not saying I don’t want grandchildren or I don’t like watching babies because I do. I’m just saying we don’t want to be responsible 24/7 for a baby again. Grandchildren can be returned 😉

When I was young, I always wanted to be a teacher. As an adult I learned, it didn’t take a classroom to become one. Any mother can tell you that once you have children, you become a full-time teacher. Everything is a learning experience and that doesn’t exclude the mother herself. I have learned many things throughout the years from my children.

I do believe most children are different today than they were when I grew up. The music they hear on the radio is much more explicit; the shows on TV are gorier and have many sexual innuendos. In general, I think children know more about life at a younger age. Even if they avoid the radio and TV shows, the news describes a lot of sad stories and they love to give as much information as possible. They use words like mutilated, rape, and sodomy. Those words alone evoke many images and questions. I don’t remember ever hearing those words when I was growing up.

The most amazing thing to me about children is their curiosity and willingness to learn. Naturally, I am not referring to older children. Preschoolers are so much fun to be around though. They love to sing and dance, learn to read and write, play games, and color with pretty crayons. They see things in different ways than we do. It’s a blast when they see something for the first time; their reactions can be very entertaining! For example, I have three beauty marks on my face. As one of my nieces sat in my lap, she pointed and touched each of those beauty marks. As she touched them, she furrowed her brows, and said, “Aunt Tami, I think you have spots!”

To me, that was priceless.

I don’t think there is anything wrong with people who don’t have children or who don’t want children. I had a teacher in high school who when asked why she never had children replied, “Because I want to travel.”

Now, some people would find that way of thinking selfish, but I don’t. If you don’t really want children, you shouldn’t have them because they are a lifetime commitment. I don’t fault people for that.