How did they do it?
In the November issue of Bon Appetit there is an article titled Sauer Power written by Molly Wizenberg. The part of the article that caught my eye had nothing at all to do with the actual “plot” of the article. While giving the history necessary for the piece Wizenberg states that her grandparents met in 1943 and two months later they were married.
“They set up house in Baltimore, and over the eight years that followed, they had seven children, including two sets of twins born eleven months apart.”
Are you freakin’ kidding me?! Parenting like this blows my mind. Can you even imagine? Your oldest is eight, then six, then four then a pair at 1 and new born twins. I can’t even comprehend the type of housekeeping skills necessary to survive that kind of mothering chaos. This from me, the stay-at-home mother of one low key, seven year old, who can’t keep her kitchen and laundry room free of dirty dishes clothes.
This mom used cloth diapers and she didn’t have a front loading washer to handle that mess all at once. She didn’t have Sesame Street and exersaucers to entertain her babes while she tried to fold that laundry. Her pharmacy probably wasn’t open 24 hours and her husband didn’t have a cell phone so she could call him on his way home to pick up something to complete dinner. She didn’t have a microwave to defrost the meat she forgot to take out of the freezer or to re-heat her coffee for the umpteenth time because she set it down to care for a child. She didn’t have Chick-fil-a with a play area where she could sip a diet Dr. Pepper and breathe easy for two seconds while her toddlers burned off some steam in the middle of a chilly Baltimore winter. I’m going to venture a guess that they didn’t have a six bedroom house with a playroom so everyone could have their own space. Although maybe that would have just been more to clean.
Today I will be grateful to be a mother in these current years. A time when birth control is legal and available so we can decide how many children we want in our family. A time when a mother can take time for herself and still raise happy, healthy children in a clean (OK, reasonably clean) house and not feel guilty about it. A time full of convenience and plentiful hot water. Today I will be mindful and thankful.