This large family mom article is from Tauna of ProverbialHomemaker.com
Large family moms are busy and blessed! It seems like we have a hundred kids to care for, a thousand tasks to do, and a million things to worry about.
However, one thing most people don’t realize about large family moms is that the more children we have, the better our perspective is. Large family moms tend to know what’s really important and cut out the rest. And what we qualify as “the little things” can surprise people!
I was chatting with a couple of fellow large family moms the other day (they have several more kids than I do, actually) and we were cracking ourselves up with all the things we had STOPPED caring about over the years that people would probably think we were crazy for.
Do any of these sound like you? Maybe it’s time to go shopping for a new thing YOU can stop worrying about!
11 Things Large Family Moms Can Stop Worrying About
Getting The Kids’ Names Right – Your kids may decide to put together name tags so you can get their names right the first time. Mine tried! It didn’t work. Lol! It’s ok! Go for the generic “dear” or “sweetheart,” and rest assured that Suzie knows she’s loved even if you called her Alice. 😉
Knowing Their Ages or Birthdays – After several embarrassing phone calls where you told the advice nurse the wrong day or year of some child’s birthday, you now rely on a note on your phone where you’ve listed them along with what grade they’re supposed to be in. Hopefully, nobody asks how much they weigh.
Remembering Anything, Actually – Things like how many months pregnant you are, precisely how old your baby is, how old YOU are, what’s on your calendar, what you planned for dinner, where your coffee is, or why you’re standing in the pantry. None of us knows. It’s ok.
Getting a Perfect Family Photo – You used to make sure everyone was color coordinated, smiling at the camera, and in perfect form. Now you’re hoping everyone’s mostly clothed and has their head in the frame.
What They’re Wearing – You used to have cute outfits, hair bobs, shoes, and everything! It was like the cover of a homeschool magazine. Now you let them scavenge for clothes every morning to dress themselves and hope for the best. Half the time they’re still in their pajamas by noon anyway. Occasionally you have to swap out something stained or full of holes so they don’t look homeless at church, or cut off their sweatpants so they have shorts to wear for baseball practice. It’s all good.
Matching Socks – You have waved the white flag in the age-old battle of matching socks. Now it’s an extra earning chore your kids can take on if desired. Otherwise, you keep giant a free-for-all bin of loose socks in the living room and wish everyone luck. Bonus: Kids learn matching skills and patience. Plus, you just put that bin in the laundry room when guests come over and feel like you cleaned.
Finding Their Shoes – There are shoes all over the floor and nobody can find theirs. That’s ok! You’re not getting out of the car anyway, or are going to grandma’s house and will be inside all day. You all load up in the van sans shoes and make it a teaching moment on why we put things back where they belong.
Getting Everything Done – You always knew that getting ALL the things done wasn’t realistic, but you kept trying anyway. Now you’re happy if you get one thing done well, and just focus on doing the next thing. But that’s a skill, my friend, not a failure. *fist bump*
Elaborate Bedtime Routines – Gone are the days of nightly epic bath time, 20 bedtime stories, 5 glasses of water, 3 silly dances, 2 prayers, and a tickle fight. Now the kids bathe once a week in the winter or on a rotation, get one bedtime story (sometimes you just make one up – you read to them all day anyway), and a prayer. That’s all. You’re done. Goodnight.
Making Everyone Happy – There will always be a kid who doesn’t like what you cooked or isn’t happy with the current activity. Call them teaching opportunities for contentment and resilience! There will always be some friend, family member, or total stranger who doesn’t agree with you having a large family or your parenting choices. Hey, it’s a perfect chance to embrace our calling and keep our eyes focused on Jesus instead of the opinions of others! And along with all that, running a loving and busy home means becoming comfortable with protecting our margins, saying “no” to some good things in order to say “yes” to the best things.
Whether We’re Doing a Good Job – We all want to strive for faithfulness, excellence, and wisdom as large family moms. Those are good things and definitely worth pursuing. But hear me on this, dear moms, and put this on your list of things to stop worrying about!
Here’s the thing… You are an imperfect, flawed woman with your own ups and downs. Your job isn’t to be perfect or raise perfect kids, nor is it to have it all together and do everything right. Instead, you are sowing the seeds of the gospel and of Christ-centered character in your children (and yourself). You are watering that garden faithfully and focusing on relationships over performance. You know what the most important things are.
And you’re pretty sure matching socks isn’t one of them.
You might also like:
– Scriptures for the Overwhelmed Mom
– Getting Your Work Done with Loop Scheduling
– What Christian Moms Really Want
Tauna is a Jesus follower, wife, mom, [domestically challenged] homemaker, homeschooler, and writer. Her passion is to help women pursue God’s call on their lives (no matter the learning curve) and rely on Him to equip us for the task!
You’ll find her at ProverbialHomemaker.com, bringing you encouragement and tools for your journey.
