Friday, February 15, 2008

Quad World

One of my friends from Houston recently had her 4th child, so I have been thinking about her a lot and emailing her for any insight she might have. Her last email was so RICH, I asked for permission to share it here. She would, however, like to remain anonymous :)

You also have to be PERFECTLY fine with all of the customers in restaurants;

1. noticing you, staring at you and possibly even pointing at you. (When we were in Dallas, no lie, girl, some ked and jumper wearing, hair to the floor lady came over and said these words that haunt me to this day "Thank you for being counter-cultural." WHAT? Are you on drugs lady? oh apparently not...do we appear in the same category as you? Oh, my....

2. Saying this brilliant statement "Oh you have your hands full!

3. Feeling complete freedom to come tell you you dropped something, or your baby is spitting up on you or did you know your son is standing in his highchair? I told my mom that the next person who approaches me to involve themselves in the personal affairs of this complete stranger will find themselves being a part of the solution to whatever problem they note. "Oh, yes she is spitting up...can you hold her while I find a burp cloth?" "Yeah, I DO have my hands full, could you walk my groceries out to my car and load them?

9 comments:

Janine said...

Too funny! Well, we get looks with three...especially at the airport. I don't know why. Having four kids is becoming very popular. So you are actually very trendy! LOL

HP and Diane said...

Jeannie, I have to say that we too got so many "looks" when we would be out in the "public" with our 4 little munchkins... many years ago. One of our "favorite" comments was "Haven't you figured out what caused these yet?" I would tell myself at that point that I was glad it was me and not "them" with the 4 children!! We wouldn't change it for the world... and now we look at all four of our children and realize what a huge blessing they are in our lives!
Congratulations! And "welcome to the 'large' family group :)

Heidi said...

Congratulations on four! Jeanne, I wish we lived closer. You're a stellar mom and a godly lady. Blessings on baby girl.

Love,
Heidi

Erin said...

I had to laugh at the last comment...and basically people's comments in general. What I think in my mind is, whether you have 2 or 10 kids, haven't these people ever had kids? I mean, are you the only one out there? Have they forgotten what its like? sheesh. I have an aunt and uncle who have 11 kids, and they are the sweetest, most well behaved kids. And the first thing people express, is of course, the shock of 11, and secondly shock that they are normal children. Like they SHOULD be crazy and high strung because there are so many of them. Good Grief. Why does everything have to be so catagorical?

Rachel said...

45 DAYS TO GO!

Kameron & Teresa said...

That is really funny! I get comments with 2 when I go out to those "big box" stores saying the usual things like: "You have your hands full!" I can't imagine the comments that will fly my way when we have more! :)

Congrats and blessings on the final days of your pregnancy!
Teresa :)

Unknown said...

well, so four kids surprises people. apparently, so does a first one when you're 38. "she's your first one?"
"yup."
pause. look more intently at mom's face. "really?"
pause. blink once or twice. "yeah."
reply with mild interjection of choice, like, "oh!" or "wow," or "huh.")
only one kid also seems to surprise people and comes with it's own kinds of comments. i can't count how many people have said, 'you're an only child?? i never would have guessed!' like only children are expected to grab food off of other people's plates or cry when a waitress messes up their order, even when we're adults.
i used to be annoyed by remarks like that, but reading this has actually reminded me to cut people some slack, to extend more grace. mostly they're trying to be helpful, or funny, or make small talk. i think it all comes down to us being most familiar and comfortable with the way things were in our own families growing up. i certainly hope people extend me grace for the countless goofy things i've said...

Holly said...

I love it when people ask if I have kids, and I say yes, two boys ages 3 & 2 (it's odd saying 3 & 2 vs 2 & 1), but people's reactions are always "wow, you have your hands full!" And when I told people I was preggo w/Asher when Jaden was only 3mos old, oh the looks and comments I got, even from family!! I too have gotten the "do you know how these things happen?" comment from my father-in-law. I know people aren't trying to be rude, but why is it so hard to understand that some people don't see kids as a burden but a blessing?

Reide said...

Jeannie,
I like your blog. Missing you guys. Glad to get a glimpse of you through this.

Beth