MORE KIDS, MORE ORGANIZATION: From the Washington Post

...What for her is summed up as "never a dull moment" is, for most other parents she meets, baffling. Seven children? As family size has shrunk, so has the number of parents with the knowledge acquired from years of raising lots of children. Parents today have launched an entire industry -- which includes handbooks, parenting coaches and "Super Nanny" -- because they feel stressed by the demands of raising their one or two children.

Which is why, maybe, parents of smaller families might have something to learn from those raising a large brood.

For more than a year, I've been placing ads on Web site message boards asking people to tell me what they've learned as parents of at least four children. The responses, most of them from mothers, cover practical areas like managing laundry, cooking, cleaning, shopping and scheduling as well as the more philosophical -- tips on the best way to make sure everyone's needs are met, your marriage is stable, and happiness and security are the norm.

For example, mother-of-four Kimberly Jordan from Tse Bonito, N.M., says her main advice -- aside from being flexible -- is to "multiply the normal time it takes to accomplish something by the number of kids who are home." For example, she writes, "folding two loads of laundry: 15 minutes X 4 kids = 1 hour . . . I find that I'm a lot less stressed if I schedule myself according to that rule."

Jane Trudeau of Murphy, Tex., a mom of five, writes that it's "very important for every child to learn many household skills, such as cooking, laundry and cooking. Not every night, but often, my kids are in the kitchen helping me cook dinner. And that will increase as they get older." ...

Having a strong marriage is important for all families but is absolutely critical when so many children are counting on you. The advice parents of big families give, over and over again, is to take time to have fun, just the two of you, on a regular basis.

more
posted by Eve at 8:43 PM | link

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home