...are you finally stopping? Is 4 it? Are you done having babies?
I don't know about you but I find that statement very personal and not one I like talking about much with other people besides my husband.
Yet I've been answering it a lot lately, mostly with a shrug of shoulders and a vague response because I'm really not keen on the further questions or strange looks when I say the truth.
And the truth is that I don't think I'm done, but it is something B and I will discuss at a later date and not something I will air to all and sundry because like Jim Gaffigan says,
"Large families are like waterbed stores, they used to be everywhere but now they're just weird."
And that's pretty much how we felt for most of my pregnancy with Darcy's- instead of just being met with congratulations when we announced my pregnancy there was an overwhelming wave of uncertainty from people about how they should respond, many questions of was he planned and the like.
Don't get me wrong, many people DID congratulate us and to them I am forever grateful that they could share our joy without judging us on the size of our family. But the others that had to question our pregnancy, well I'm still holding onto that disappointment that they couldn't just be happy for us. But that's not something I can help, well it is, I can let go of the disappointment, but I can't change their views on the number of kids I should and do have. After all they aren't the ones parenting my children, I guess I just don't understand why how ever many kids I have bothers some people so much. Just because they personally wouldn't choose to have four or more kids doesn't mean that I shouldn't.
Do you get questions about the size of your family? How do you respond?
I think people expect me to want another because I have two boys, but if I did, and it was another boy, then there'd be jokes about if I would keep going until I got a girl!
ReplyDeleteHere, having more than two children is not the norm (and my sister having four is considered just plain crazy!), but I'm surprised you received negativity because I found that four seemed to be the average number in Australia and big families were just expected. I could have become quite wealthy if I had a dollar for every time I was asked when I would have another, because I only had one at the time!
I think people expect me to want another because I have two boys, but if I did, and it was another boy, then there'd be jokes about if I would keep going until I got a girl!
ReplyDeleteHere, having more than two children is not the norm (and my sister having four is considered just plain crazy!), but I'm surprised you received negativity because I found that four seemed to be the average number in Australia and big families were just expected. I could have become quite wealthy if I had a dollar for every time I was asked when I would have another, because I only had one at the time!