I'm Just A Mom

As you all know I have 4 kids. No, it wasn't planned except maybe in my dreamy tween years before I knew how much work kids really were, but I wouldn't change a thing. Yet I have found there is something different about 4 kids. After you have passed the 3 child mark you are looked upon differently.

The parents with less children will say things like "I don't know how you do it!" "4 kids...Wow!" or "Supermom!" I do see this happen though even if you have less than 4 kids. It's more like anyone who has more children than you suddenly becomes your hero because you can imagine adding any more work to your already hectic life.

I can laugh at the people who feel this way. I can let out my big sigh and say "I don't know how I do it either!" I can just give them one of those looks and they understand.

The thing I find really strange is from other moms who have more than 3 children. It seems any # over three suddenly earns you respect from some of these moms. Somehow it doesn't matter if they have 4 or 8 or more, you hear how wonderful you are for having "such a beautiful family!"

I had a woman stop me today and tell me how great it was that I was a mother of 4. She proudly exclaimed how she was a mother of 5 glancing down at her new baby in the car seat in the shopping cart. Another time I was stopped by a woman in Borders who began a conversation with me over how great it is to have so many children fill your life. She was a mother of 8.

These are the people that I don't know quite how to respond to. I am a honest person. I tell it like it is. It's not easy for me much of the time. I love it but man, it's work. So how do you respond to people who find total bliss in being a mother of so many children and expect you to feel the same way. How do you tell them that you have laundry everywhere, you wish you could just have a moment alone in the bathroom and your ready to strangle one of them for doing something you told them not to a hundred times already today.

I want to tell them I am just a mom, just like all the other moms out there. I have my good days and bad. I don't have enough time or energy. I just do the best I can and hope it's enough, which is all any mother does.

You do it for those beautiful little ones who don't know you as anything else but Mom. Whether your a mom of 1 or 19, you are able to do it for your kids.