Raw, Uncensored Thoughts of a Mother With 10 Children

In the course of our lives, we are being spent doing something

Photo by His Hands Photography

People think I’m crazy

I’m a 41-year-old mom with 10 kids, including a one-year-old. There are days I open my eyes in the morning, stare at the ceiling, and know that people think I’m crazy even though I feel pretty normal.

And I don’t blame them.

I didn’t choose to have this many children.

I could not have had 10 children. It’s easy to prevent them. Even with Natural Family Planning (which we’ve used before–and it didn’t seem natural at all), once you’ve resumed your cycle from breastfeeding. People think I chose to have this many children, and I didn’t. Choosing not to prevent them isn’t the same as “seeing how many you can have.”

My hands are, in fact, full

Sometimes, I still get up at night with the baby. I’ve been getting up with babies for twenty years. I still can’t eat a meal without regular interruptions. Yes, some days I do want to eat my food and that’s all. (What if mealtime was a quiet event with no noodles to scrape off the floor afterward?)

I still have very needy toddlers. And wonderful. I have teenagers who are even more…