Last Updated on March 20, 2018
“Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward.” Psalm 127:5
Lately I’ve been reflecting deeply on many things. It’s good for all of us to do some of that, but today I need a break from deep.
So instead of deep, I’m going with, well, not exactly shallow, but more like practical reality. The thing I’ve been thinking about is a hazard of having six kids in a five-year span, almost to the day. Let me illustrate:
For several years, three of our kids attended therapies three days per week. One of our physical therapists liked to let her patients choose a toy from the treasure chest after each successful session. This was really thoughtful.
Of course, it wouldn’t be fair to let only one of my children pick a toy, so to avoid any conflict, she let all six of them choose one. Would you like to do the math on this one? Say 50 weeks per year, times 3 sessions per week, times six children, equals 900 Happy-Meal-type toys per year. I had to put a stop to that one.
Or there’s goldfish. Five years ago we attended a Halloween alternative event. All night we avoided the booth giving away goldfish. But at the end of the night, the goldfish-givers walked around and passed out the rest of their baggies. We got 19 goldfish.
On the way home, I ran into a pet store, picked up a plastic fishbowl that said it was good for one to two fish, along with goldfish flakes and water conditioner. The fish enjoyed living in close quarters, and two of them are still alive today, much to my husband’s dismay.
Or Sunday school art projects. I like them. I love that my children made them for me. But six every week? With wet glue and glitter?
Six buckets of Halloween candy (that’s something like 30 pounds). Six stacks of library books (good thing our library is lenient on the overdue fines). Six turns on a video game (that’s three hours if everyone gets 30 minutes). Six times the free water bottles at the zoo. Six times the stickers at the doctor’s office. Six times the unmatched socks. Six times the wrapping paper at Christmas.
On the other hand, there’s six times the hugs. Six times the sleepy bedheads in the morning. Six times the laughter. Six times the silly jokes. Six times the smiles. And six times “I love you, Mom!”
Yeah, six times anything is a lot!
