But it is the type of chaos that you will miss with all your heart in retrospect.
Chaos
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
In my experience peak chaos happens after reaching the first 5 or 6 children. You realize this after the next 5 or 6. My conclusion: If you work with God He will help you.
I use a football analogy:
1 kid is double coverage
2 kids is man to man
3 kids move to zone defense
(Ben you beat me to it.)
#1 child – a painful birth process where young adults are pushed out into full adulthood. Baby drops the bottle you sterilize it.
#2 child – first child feels displaced, Dad really needs to step it up and give #1 attention. Baby drops the bottle you wash it.
#3 child – “I’ve got this one, you’ve got that one, who’s got that one.” Zone coverage. Baby drops the bottle, you wipe it off.
#4 child – parents and siblings look at the little newcomer, and say “ah no big deal, another one.” Baby drops the bottle.. you let the dog lick it and pop-it back in.
Ooh, three kids, you’ve got TWO helpers with the baby!
(Sometimes it’s “help”, sometimes they’re quite good at it.)
So, my advice would be to make it easy to give the older kids a job. Like having a place you keep the baby sized diapers that they can reach.
It is stinking ADORABLE for a still-measured-in-months child to earnestly explain to adults “I halp!” and wave around a handful of diapers. 😀
omg, if some dude is asking this question there is only one reponse: stop micromanaging right now