A common question I receive in different forms that doesn’t have a short answer is, “Is having 5 kids hard?”. I will never sugar coat what life with 5 kids is like. There are days that seem to demand more energy than I have to give, and there are days that seem smooth enough to give us a moment of reassurance that we are doing alright. There are moments I am tempted to run and hide in my closet for a 5 minute breather to escape the noise, but there are also moments my eyes well up with tears being overwhelmed with just how much I love them. This is the great juxtaposition of motherhood, a wide range of emotions that coexist together. It brings us on a wild ride which requires helmets and serious battle gear. We hurt when they hurt. We fear all of the possible threats or dangers to their lives. We are filled with joy seeing them happy. The emotions are high and low, up and down, and to Timbuktu and back. I think however, all of this applies whether you are a mother of 1 or a mother of 11 (Hi mom! She should probably write this post.).
So when people tell me they are overwhelmed with “just two” children, and they can’t imagine 5, I agree with them. I can’t imagine it either…until I remember the number of children I have. You see, 2 was overwhelming for me also. 3 almost broke me. 4 was batsh*t crazy, and 5 is still borderline batsh*t crazy. However, there are a few things that are different now….
