I may chat about my books, what I'm writing or reading, or just general thoughts. You may read posts about my cats or just my crazy life in general. Comments are welcome, if anyone wants to interact with me. Maybe we can share war stories, whether it's writing related or just about life in general.

Saturday, April 19, 2014

Q is for Quiet



Life on the farm was never quiet in our house, not with seven kids.  There was always a commotion going on over something, unless it was the middle of the night and we were sleeping.

I think that fact is what made up my mind not to have any kids of my own when I grew up.  I was the oldest in this group and ended up doing many chores from about the age of six onward.  I changed diapers for my siblings, fed them bottles, and rocked them to sleep.  I also stood on a chair to wash dishes because I was too short to reach the sink in the kitchen.

All the noise usually came from our excitement over something, but there were times when we fought with each other too, but soon resolved our conflicts.  The only ones who could never wave a white flag and settle on peace were my two bothers.  They were never close and aren’t to this day.

Once we moved to town, we all had to watch it, if they were at each other about something, because shoes would fly over your head sometimes.  They hurled things at each other a lot in those days.  I’m surprised they never had any fistfights, but if they did, I never knew about it.  They were eight and eleven when I moved out of the house, so this could’ve happened.



 Sunset in the Desert - Sunni's Pics

I do know one thing, Mama loved kids and started taking in kids to babysit once we started growing up.  This shocked me and I hated it because I was glad for the quieter times.  I don’t know how she could put up with all the racket, but it didn’t seem to bother her a bit.  She would have made a good little old lady in the shoe with all the kids.

2 comments:

  1. I'm always fascinated with the child-bearing choices people make in adulthood. My cousin had only one sibling but she wanted as many kids as possible. They had four but I think if they could have afforded it, they would have just kept going. Our parents and grandparents really didn't have the same choices...they had birth control, but even with my mom's generation, Catholics were still preaching against it. Today, people really have the choice of no kids, one kid, 12 kids, etc., and they each have their own reasons for making those choices.

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  2. Stephanie,

    Yes, it's a good thing we live in a time when we do have choices. Out of the seven of us, there are only 9 grandkids for my mom, counting the two who are no longer livimg. I think her great grandkids will be more like her - the more the merrier.

    Sunni

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