Fold My Laundry Please

When we moved to Oregon back in April, my family and I were greeted by many very friendly people.  We received smiles as we walked down the street.  Employees in the stores we shopped at were all more than happy to help us find what we needed or to spend a few minutes chit chatting with us.  It was an all around good vibe.  What I was totally not expecting, however, was the reaction to the size of our family.  People would ask us how many kids we had and when we told them that we had three children, their eyes would grow to the size of salad plates and every time… every. time. …they would say, "THREE KIDS?  You must be busy!"  The town we moved from in Idaho is 98% LDS families, so larger families aren’t unusual there.  But three kids?  Let’s be honest here.  Three is not a big number. 

At the time that we moved, I was only 3 or 4 months pregnant, so when people I didn’t know looked at me, I would get a look that clearly said, "Is she pregnant or just chubby?  I just won’t say anything about it."  As my belly got bigger and it became painfully obvious that I was indeed with child, the comments took on a new attitude.  While the general public had been shocked at a family with three children, they were positively agog when confronted with the possibilities of four kids.  In a single family no less! 

I distinctly remember one evening when we had taken the kids out to eat at Red Robin.  (Oh how I love Red Robin!  Burgerrrrrrrrsssss….)  Our meal had been consumed in peace and we had paid our bill and were heading home.  We walked past one table that had a young, 20-ish girl and her date.  She ooohed and aaahed over the children as they cavorted past, looking more and more surprised as each child went by.  As I approached she looked at me and gave me a big smile.  Then her gaze drifted down towards my belly and her jaw literally dropped.  Two tables down was an elderly couple enjoying their meal.  As my lovely family went past him and his wife, I heard him counting my younglings (and youngling-to-be).  "One, two, three…four!  Four kids!" 

Fast forward to last week.  I was taking advantage of Ethan being at school to do some shopping at Walmart with only Aurora, Gideon, and Aubrey in tow.  Our trip went well and the kids all behaved beautifully inside the store.  We got all of our items out to the van with no problem and had even loaded everything into the back.  I shut the back door and was ambushed by the lady who’s car was parked right next to mine.  "Oh my goodness!  Bless your little heart!  Are all these children yours?"  Now, mind you, all my kids weren’t even there with me.  "You’ve got, one…two…and three!  And they’re all so tiny!  Three sweet little blessings!  They are just the sweetest things!  Bless your little heart!  Bless your busy heart!  You must be running from morning to night!  Bless you and your family!  I am gonna keep you and your little ones in my prayers tonight!  Bless your soul!"  She blessed us a few more times before getting into her car and driving away leaving me in peace to buckle everyone into their carseats.

Luckily for me, I always seem to get the mostly positive, albeit creepy, reactions.  Andrew works with a woman who thinks that large families are a crime against the environment and are also very harmful to the physical and social developement of the children.  She must have read this article.  To those people I have only this to say.  "Pffft!"

What I’m trying to say is, I have often read posts by Chris on her blog "Notes From the Trenches"  where she speaks of people counting her children (she has seven) over and over and of all the weird questions she gets from total strangers when she’s out with her family.  (The most common question people ask me?  "Are they twins?" referring to Gideon and Aurora.  Gideon is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, big for his age four year old and Aurora is a blonde-haired, blue-eyed, petite little two year old.  No.  They’re not twins.)  And she’s not alone.  There are many blogs out there with authors who are parents of large families, and they all seem to get the same sort of reaction.  I used to read these posts and laugh at their absurdity.  Surely these parents were exaggerating!  There couldn’t be that much ignorance freely roaming the streets.  But now I know it’s true.  All of it.  And for me, it’s only the beginning.  As I plan to have a few more children still.  So there!  Take that you Breeder Haters!