Wednesday, July 30, 2008

More on The How

If you've just stopped on by, I'm tackling questions that people wonder about "big" families. I personally still think of us as "just us" and forget that our family size is a bit of a cultural abnormality. We aren't perfect, please don't look at my baseboards or in my cupboards, and most certainly not in my bedroom, when you come over, but we are happy and love what's going on in our "large" family. Take a look at this post if you want to see how this on going series got started and please feel free to leave any other questions that I can give you my view on. This label has all the "answers" thus far.


ryleeandnoahsmom
asked:

How do you choose to handle people's questions about the size of your family? Do you simply say, "we love kids!" or have a humorous retort, etc?


Well... it sort of depends on the question and the mood I'm in ;-)

A lot of times people say "5 kids? Wow, God bless you!" I usually respond "He does!"

Then every so often I say something like this, in response to the question "Did you always wants so many kids?" :

"Well, the reason we have 5 kids is because my husband wanted a LOT. But I don't really like kids, so we only had 5."



The thing I think that's important about anything in your life is to be positive. If you aren't convinced you aren't going to convince anyone else! Also realize that there are a lot of negative people that are going to be rude no matter what you say. I've learned that if someone asks me something, I answer, and they continue with the negative - well then, I just smile and nod.

What they have to say isn't for me or you. And that's OK. You won't get everyone's approval, so it's a good thing you don't need it! I just want to make a positive impact that you can have many children and be extremely fulfilled and happy. Children aren't the downer to life, unlike popular opinion. So I try to keep that in mind when I speak to people.

4 comments:

Precision Quality Laser said...

lol..."my husband wanted a lot of kids, I don't really like kids, so we only had 5"...lol! That is a great response...lol! And you are so right, children are a blessing not an inconvenience like so many people treat them as.

Unknown said...

I usually get the - "your a busy lady!" Usually I respond, with a big smile and confirm just how precious they each are. I learn so much from each of them - even a babies :)

CanCan said...

So funny! People make the dumbest comments about just about anything (not only about family size...I don't think 5 is *crazy a lot of kids*)

David said...

You could probably unfold a whole topic on the question, "How do you respond to people who aren't nice and make a crude comment?" I think I've found that most people really don't mean any harm by the comments they say, no matter how pointed they are. Sometimes it's good to politely tell them what the topic means to you. But like you said, at times to take the conversation further means to offend someone (perhaps you.) To just nod and smile lets the comment drift into insignificance.