I’ll take a 10, 7 & 5-year-old Please!
![2 girls kissy[1]](http://cuddlebugs.onslow.org/cuddlebugs/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/2-girls-kissy11-300x299.jpg "2 girls kissy[1]")
I contemplated writing this post as a guest post on TweenBeat since it deals so much with my older children, but I decided I wanted to share it here on Cuddlebugs because I want to make all you other toddler/baby moms jealous of the AMAZING helpers I have!!
Everyday…ok wait I take that back, NOT everyday because I’m not brave enough to venture out of the realms of my house, but every TIME I go out of the house and into the big wide world of stores and the fast paced life that we all live, I’m always confronted by at LEAST one person that says to me, “Wow, you really have your hands full” or “…five kids, how do you do it?!”
I used to get totally annoyed by these remarks. “Uhmm, YES, I have my hands full and I don’t need you to point that out to me as I’m struggling to juggle all five of these kids and not lose any of them.” I realized that my answer to the second question, “how do you do it?” is usually answered by saying, “I’m just in survival mode now.” Which couldn’t be more true.
Although, I DO need to give credit where credit due. My three bigger children, ages 10, 7 and 5, are AMAZING.
If you came to my house, it wouldn’t be long before you realized JUST how much those three help me to get through each day.
- They do MASSIVE amounts of chores. I’m talking dishes, sweeping, mopping, cleaning bathrooms, dusting, folding laundry, setting and cleaning dinner tables, etc.
- They entertain while I’m able to get dinner made.
- They take Isaak to the park and push him in the swing or go on walks with him when they can clearly see me needing a moment of peace.
- They make bottles and find pacifiers.
- They are pretty much self-sufficient in almost everything they do which allows me to focus on the two babies.
The list goes on and on. I understand that they shouldn’t be doing EVERYTHING to help raise their siblings, but they sure lighten the load by a TON and I think it teaches them some pretty good values for the future.
What are your thoughts on older siblings helping with younger ones?
I think that’s great and yes, I’m totally envious! It is amazing how older siblings understand when you need help and take action. My 3 year old helps by doing little things, like giving the baby her pacifier when she spits it out, or if I’m nursing the baby (which seems to be all the time) she can bring me stuff, like water or the phone. It’s really helpful! I can’t imagine the possibilities once she reaches your kids age, but I definitely can’t wait!
What a blessing, or rather 3 blessings! At first Marissa was not very interested in helping out, but we have been working with her since she moved in 3 years ago and now she is doing chores and lending a hand with baby which is quite nice. No diaper changing…yet, haha (:
Adorable photo, by the way (:
My almost 8yr and 5yr old do help out a lot too. Some days dinner wouldn’t get made if it weren’t for them entertaining the baby or occupying my toddler, and they’ve always been good to just chill and watch a movie if I need a rest when the babies are napping.
I do need to give them more cleaning responsibilities that would help to lighten my load and I remember having to do more chores like you mentioned at a young age so I need to implement that in them more. I think being in a larger family is a great learning/teaching environment, and I guess from now on if people say, How do you do it? Be proud that you have the older kids to help, and that you could obviously do something the others are not capable of, go MOM!
thanks for teh compliment sarah!
mamta it’s truly nice. i can’t lie.
hillary, i think a lot of parents don’t give their kids bigger chore responsibilities because they THINK they can’t do it. when really, you’d be surprised at how good they are!