At the age of 23, I gave birth to my first baby. The doctor handed me the baby and said " Get your rest while you can - from now on you're going to be busy!" All the books on pregnancy and motherhood said the same thing. All the nurses stressed that I should take time for myself, make sure I had 'help' for when I just needed a break. The only thing I could think was " Well I sure hope things get a little more busy around here!" Ever since leaving my parents' home, getting married and then pregnant, life seemed to slow wayyyyyyyy down. Every day seemed like a week long. I hoped with this new baby, that the pace would pick up, I'd have tons more to do, that life would get a little hectic like everyone kept telling me it would. Hmmmmm. Nope. I finally came to the conclusion that if one has raised litter after litter of puppies, and losing any would mean the loss of hundreds of dollars for our family, that raising human children is a piece of cake.
Let me explain; In September of 1987, when I was 11 years old, our Yellow Labrador, Sadie, had her first litter of 9 puppies. This was the beginning of a 20 year long family endeavor to provide happy families with furry bundles of joy and some additional $ to provide food ( and animal feed ) for our family. At 11 years old I made a video of how to assist a dog in giving birth and the proper way to care for newborn pups. I also recorded the births of the puppies in the photo above. Then my 2 brothers and I helped raise the puppies until each went to it's new home. As the years went on we had many, many, many more litters of puppies and no one worried over them more than my own mother. My youngest brother and I even ended up sleeping outside in the dog kennel for a couple of nights to ensure a safe delivery of one litter of pups. ( The first one from that litter was actually born ON my sleeping head - seems that's where the mother felt was the safest place to give birth ) We'd sleep on the floor or on a nearby sofa for the first week after the birth of each litter to be sure to hear the squeals of any puppy that might be getting crushed under an exhausted mother dog looking for place to stretch out. We would not let ANY of those puppies die! Talk about not getting any sleep! After doing this, staying awake and nursing my own human babies was nothing! I only had one baby at a time to deal with AND I could sleep in my own bed!
( My youngest brother with one of our first puppies, 1987. )
My Mom also had many hobbies of her own and has always been a master at finding things for us to do. I don't remember EVER being bored growing up. Between school work at home, chores outside with the animals, piano lessons, 4-H club meetings, home school meetings, church, Bible study, chores inside the house, meals, building forts in the woods, playing 'ARMY' with the neighbor kids and always having cousins over, plus many, many other activities there was never any time to do nothing. So - when I got married and my husband and I moved into our first home and I'd quit working outside the home to have and care for our first baby I'd get up ( not early either, mind you ), have breakfast, go outside and feed our 3 dogs and then ..... hmmm.... baby still sleeping .... hmmmm.... oh! Change his diaper, nurse him, baby sleeping again.... hmmmm.... nope, not busy. Then baby #2 came along. Nope, still not busy. In fact things got easier. Then baby #3 and a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old in the house, and the house up for sale - okay, a LITTLE busy - then nope, not busy! The more kids I have, the easier and more streamlined my life becomes. Now the oldest is about to turn 13 and the youngest is almost 4 and they can all 4 run the entire house with no help from me. The kids are with me 24 / 7 because we home school and if they weren't here, it still evens out because they do a lot of the chores but also make most of the mess and still the 'bored' word comes out of their mouths occasionally. Okay, I still have to drive for them but in 3 yrs, we'll have a 16 year old and then even that responsibility won't be just mine. So see! Kid's do NOT make you busy! I guess there are lots of things that can make you busy, but Doctor, I'm still waiting!
4 comments:
Great perspective! I am always surprised at all the recommendations for moms to have"me time". Good grief,what better way to have the best time of your life than to spend it with the children you love...well, that is how I felt. Now I absolutely love spending my "me time" with you, your brothers, your families, and especially my grandchildren. I even have time for all those hobbies, and of course the dogs.
It would do good for all the "professionals" to re-order their thinking about children, they're not a problem to get away from, they're a blessing to embrace and enjoy, ( sprinkled with a bit of discipline every so often). Thanks for the cute picture of Daniel. I hadn't seen that one in a long time!
Oh, BTW, if you're still bored I can use some help with weeding my gardens. :)
I've always had trouble understanding when someone says they are bored. I never have enough time in the day to do all that I'd like to do!
You are a good writer AJoy, why not take some of that not busy time and write a children's book? One your own children would like to read. I think you should write a story for kids about dust. Smile. I loved that blog post.
Love it!!! Somehow with 4 kiddos I feel a little too busy at times....but I wouldn't trade it. And I just love hearing about raising pups too ... sounds all too familiar! I miss having litters.
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