Things have been a bit busy around the Darwin house the last couple days. First we were out of town for a wedding, and getting a chance to hang out with the Duffys, then we had some old college friends staying with us for a couple days. They, like we, have five children, so the population was a little high. Add to this that we do not have air conditioning (installing air conditioning in 4000sq/ft 120 year old house with no ductwork and casement windows that don't allow window units is something that hasn't fit in the budget yet) and it could have been described in the currently trendy phrase "hot mess" -- except that our gracious guests were also very good cleaners.
I mentioned to someone at work that we had some friends, with another five kids, staying with us, and he reacted in horror.
This is one of those things about having a large family of young kids, however: It's never going to be quiet anyway.
Whether it's just our kids, or our kids plus neighbor kids, or our kids plus guests, we tend to be a big raucous house. And when there are neighbors or guests over, the kids tend to be enthusiastically and busily occupied. At other times... Sometimes they are, and sometimes they're squabbling or complaining about how bored they are. So I never mind having extra kids over for a while. Oddly enough, it keeps things quiet -- in a loud sort of way.
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2 comments:
My mom was always very hospitable--we had 6 kids before I married and moved out. Her motto was very much "the more the merrier," and she always felt that it was easier to share what you had when you were already providing for a large family, even when resources were limited. I guess it's just part of the large family philosophy!! I think/hope I've got that, even if we have only 3 kids!
Once the noise reaches a certain level, the number of people around doesn't seem to matter much.
My only real concern with having lots of other kids around is how much stuff is going to get dumped on the floor, although that's my main concern when it's just my own children. So whichever....
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