Tuesday, February 17, 2015

Guest Blogger: Stop Judging Big Families, Please

Today I have a guest blogger. Okay, so she didn't set out to be that, but she ALWAYS says the best stuff on Facebook but doesn't have a lot of interest or time to mess with making her own blog. I simply MUST get some of her stories out there for the world, though! I'm about to compile all her best Book of Faces posts and make them into some sort of rockin' ebook as a gift for her and the world!

Anyway, here is what I found today and it's sad how people can be sometimes but awesome how she has an attitude of loving her life anyway. I remember people saying things to my own mother sometimes about how she only had one kid and when was she having another and she had no plans to do so. Why do we think this is our business?


We preach REPRODUCTIVE FREEDOM from the hilltops, we feminists, and yet we can't stay out of each other's child-making -- or lack of -- business! You could be saying something VERY hurtful to a woman with "only" one child. Maybe she just had a miscarriage yesterday. Maybe she had her fifth miscarriage yesterday. Stop judging such things and worry about something more important, please! If I ask you for money or help, THEN you can judge me and castigate me. Until then, please zip it!

P.S. Be careful about what you say around a mother when her children are near. They can hear you. If you act like a big family is a crappy thing, these kids are taking that in and it's confusing to them because they probably LOVE their life and don't understand where such ignorance is coming from!

Here is Elizabeth Hammond, my dear and lovely friend:


Funny thing this society is.

Seriously, what has happened to America?

Someone that delivered me sandwiches in a beat-up Ford just told me she was 'so sorry' when she saw my 6 kids standing at the door.
'So sorry?' I said.

'They are SO expensive!!' she said while scratching her head.

'Perspective, honey,' I said. 'You are delivering sandwiches. I am raising human beings that thrill me, love me, hug me, laugh with me, comfort me.'

Can I just be brutally honest with you, Facebook? 

Next time you pass a mamma with children, whether ONE or TEN, do NOT judge, do NOT pity, DO NOT feel empathy for her because she has 'mighty arrows'. She's is doing the MOST important job that could ever exist in this life. The days are long and tireless, some are very unrewarding. She doesn't take a salary and she certainly doesn't look like a celebrity. 

This job is special, not for everyone. 

It's mine, I was called.

Now go deliver your sandwiches so I can play LEGOS, nurse a baby, wipe a bottom, cuddle in my tiny double bed with my six kids while we watch Magic School Bus, and eat kettle corn. I'll go then unload the dishes for the third time, change the laundry over for the 6th time, wipe peepee off the floor in the bathroom and change out of my jammies into yoga pants by 4pm. Perspective, baby.

WORD.