Top 10 Biggest Challenges of Having a Large Family

*Getting a decent Family Portrait is a complete sh*tshow. (Thank you, God for Photoshop.) 

*Feeling like a complete fool when someone wants to know the ages of my kids and I stand there trying to think it through as if someone’s asking me to recite the Gettysburg Address on the spot. Same thing goes for calling to make appointments at the pediatrician’s office, and they ask me for my kids’ dates of birth. Those people probably think I’m on dope.

*The inability to clone oneself and be at 4 different sports games, one dance practice, and one doctor’s appointment all at the same time. Our kids have had to accept The fact that I make it to some things, and I don’t make it to lots of things. They also have had to learn to speak up and communicate to us when something is very important to them and they really want me to prioritize being there. 

*Privacy isn’t really a “thing”, even in a big house. Sometimes the laundry room is your bedroom for a period of time. No big deal. 😝

*Making a restaurant reservation isn’t a suggestion, it’s a requirement.  (And it usually involves a conversation with the manager who deals with “large parties.) **eyeroll**

*Scheduling and Calendering for 10 is, like, SO difficult. You guys, it’s SO  hard. We do our best, but with so many busy people, it’s nearly impossible to keep everything straight all the time. Each day, our time looks like a giant, shaky tower of Jenga Blocks. One delay, one cancellation, one illness, and all hell breaks loose and the entire tower comes crashing down. Our calendar looks like we’ve literally played Tetris trying to fit everything in. But the flip side of that stress is, we all learn to be a bit more flexible, a bit more understanding, and a bit gentler on ourselves. We just do our best.

*Drive-Thrus are a nightmare for us. Let’s just leave it at that.

*Balancing one on one time with our kids is extremely difficult. We used to be pretty good at it and have a rotation locked in, but now it’s just become so difficult, because there are so many of us. So instead of doing weekly dates with our kids or monthly dates even, we grab someone here or there and take one to breakfast or to coffee, or whatever. We practice looking for opportunities that organically present themselves instead of force ourselves to go have a fun time at dinner, when we’ve just had an argument about our kid double booking themself for a friend’s birthday party on our pre-scheduled date. It’s just easier to watch for opportunities and grab one. I’ve learned it doesn’t have to be Hamilton Tickets and an 8 course Dinner. They are fine rolling with us down the street to Starbucks or whatever. Other times we’ll do smaller groups- we’ll realize for example, that tomorrow we have just the Girls or just the boys Home, so we’ll grab that opportunity and go boating or to get pedicures with them. So we’re intentional about one on one time but we are also fluid about it. 

*Clothes wind up in the wrong closet, someone ate your leftovers from the Italian place down the street that you were saving to eat after practice, someone borrowed your toothpaste and now it’s gone...just general frustrations that come from communal living.

*Communication is huge, and sometimes we suck at it. There’s always someone who didn’t get the memo that we’re leaving for Hawaii in the morning, there’s always someone who didn’t read their texts and therefore is uninformed on the latest updates to the plan.