You know you've had too many children when...

[LynetteScavo]

You nearly have a heart attack paying for their new school uniform, then struggle to carry it all home.

mine were 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008 and dd should have been 2010 but arrived early in 2009! (I've been married 10 years time for a rest now)

4madboys I don't know about you but I find dd is a bit mad with having 4 older brothers. We cannot take our eys of her. She is 19months and can climb over the stair gate. Is your wee girl the same?

mrsdevere I dread the teen years.

oh and I could punch people when they say 'oh did you keep going till you got a girl?' eh no!!!!!!!

I get that a lot too tallulah

Unfortunately it means I have to make the choice of a. denying my DD existed or b. telling a stranger my DD died and dealing with their reaction.

Its not the stranger's fault. As soon as you say 'no my fifth' they want to know all about your big family -ages, sexes etc.

tallulah, that is a lovely gap though, I bet she is doted on by the big ones.

mrsdevere, so sorry about your dd :( ihave seen you post about her on other threads i think, i hope you enjoy your years with her despite her illness xxx

queenmaeve, dd is only 8mths but almost crawling and already prefers the boys toys over her baby ones, she ADORES the boys they get the biggest smiles and laughs etc, she has them wrapped around her little finger already, esp ds1 as he was at her birth and cut the cord (its given them a really special bond) :)

i can forsee her being a little terror when she is older! but she is adorable and it is lovely having a girl, purely from the clothes pov!! i am having so much fun dressing her in funky tights and dresses, she has a black tutu with silver tights and sequined converse not much pink as i dont like it, but anything stripey and bright i love, i have to remind myself she isnt a doll

i do get HUGELY irritated by people that assume we kept going until we got a girl and all the 'thank goodness you got a girl this time' comments and 'poor you four boys' etc,

we were thrilled with each of our boys when they arrived and went into preg no 5 TOTALLY assuming we would get another boy, we werent going to find out the sex, but the sonographer said she had a clear view (i took that to mean boy) so when she said girl i nearly fainted and told her she must be wrong, poor woman, checked a hundred times and when i still insisted she was wrong she said 'i am not allowed to say i am 100% sure but i am 100% sure this baby is a girl' i still didnt believe her, paid for a private scan at 28wk and then when dd was born i said 'is it really a girl'

ultimately all we wanted, like anyone, was a healthy baby,having a girl has just added a different dynamic, or at least i assume it will as she gets older, at the moment other than nappies and clothes its not any different, she loves toy cars etc and i cant see her being a girly girl being surrounded by the boys and i am not girly either, but we will see, i am sure like the boys she will put her own stamp on the family, they are all hugely different, despite looking very alike.......... yes wierdes comment ever by random woman in shop.....'ooh how nice to see that all your kids have the same father and you arent one of those young mums that sleeps around'

i didnt know what to say, but what i should have said (as they all have blonde hair and blue eyes) is 'NO i just only like to sleep with aryan men' !

I get asked the 'same father' thing all the time!

My kids are mixed race so obviously I have several baby daddies

Nothing so exciting as that I am afraid.

Sometimes if the asker is very rude I will say 'no and one has a different mother as well' and watch them try and work it out.

i would love to see their faces when you say that mrsdevere

i have more,

when you have to buy bigger saucepans so you can cook enough pasta/potatoes etc for one meal.

when you use a whole loaf of bread just for lunch.

when you use a 500g pack of pasta for one dinner.

and when a 9kg washing machine still isnt big enough to be able to do only one load a day....... and you wash the bedsheets on a rota as there is NO way you could wash all of them in one day, let alone get them dry and remake beds!

am in over the same father comments! Here in Ireland big families are pretty common, although not as much as in years gone by. But in th dc school and amongst their friends there are lots of families with 4 and 5, no one would really pass any remarks.
4madboys, my dh says I have become a raging feminist since dd was born as I am going out of my way to buy toys that are not girly for her. I had to get her a firewoman Penny and a Wendy to play with her brothers .
I do love the dresses and tights and hair clips though!

Mrsdeveere I remeber seeing a picture of your dd, I think it was on your profile? She was just beautiful.

yes my dd doesnt have any girly toys yet and i have been very adament about the no pink and i still refer to her a big strong girl etc and not just pretty and she is treated the same as the boys, i wont have her pandered to, but i suspect the boys will do! and i have just started with hair clips, tho she doesnt really have enough hair.....

oh as i am just experiencing, when you have to invoke various 'naughty steps' so the fighting children can all be seperated and sat for time out, ihave on at the bottom of the stairs, one sat behind me and another in the dining rm............arghhhhhhhhh

When you would never consider buying any less than a half 100 weight of spuds!
When you're writing a card and just write & family.
When it is impossible to book a bloody hotel room online, computer says no! You always have to ring up and explain there are 7 of you.
When it takes you till 3 am on Christmas morning to put out all the toys and fill stockings.

oh yes the hotel rooms and ditto for holidays, infact most things for online booking go into meltdown if you have more than 3 kids.......

and when the new shoes bill makes you weep, the boys all have wide feet wtih a high instep so no clarks etc have to get european shoes from an independent retailer, generally £40-£50 pounds a pair, thank god for a generous grandma!

yes our boys are the same! We go to a play park and instead of playing they all walk round after her incase she falls Dh is far worse, he has her ruined. Although dd was 8 weeks early and in neo natal for 3 weeks so I suppose we were all a bit more protective of her anyway.
That is lovely your ds1 being at the birth, he'll always remember that day!

and when the staff at the local a&e department give you a weary look and welcome you by your first name as you are there AGAIN, four boys means lots of trips to a&e, dislocated elbow, broken foot, swallowed magnets, numerous head bumps etc etc

he will indeed queenmaeve, i am hoping that now he KNOWS what having unprotected sex results in he will be careful when his time comes!....

omg imagine 20 odd years time and they all have their own kids, HOW many grandchildren..........

When you come on holiday with a full car having left a couple at home.

When there is never any roast chicken left over to make a second meal.

When out with your oldest son and youngest daughter you can see people's minds whirring trying to work out the family dynamics

When friends refer to them as your tribe rather than children.

When quite often meals are served in sittings rather than en masse.

When you buy toys that were in vogue the first time and again when there is a revival for a different child.

Much as I would have welcomed a girl in this family (I feel a bit outnumbered at times ) I was postively relieved when DC4 was a DS4 as nobody could ever assume that 'we just kept going until we got a girl' - so rude!
I did however get 'condolences' at the arrival of healthy, much wanted DS3 by some old crone - I was so speechless I said nothing and regret that to this day....

MrsD, I love the 'different mothers too' bit - I bet that stops people in their tracks while their cogs turn to figure it out .

leftoevers, WHAT are they........?!

i think you get more relaxed as well with each child, for instance ds4 whalloped his head recently, OMG the lump on his head, me i picked him up, gave him a cuddle and found a cereal bar in my bag, food alway stops the screaming the other parents and a teacher were in a right flap running around, getting ice packs and asking if i was going to take him to hospital!!

i did take him to my gp' surgery purely because it was cut and i needed someone to hold him down so i could clean it (dp at work) it had gravel in so needed to be cleaned and i got the nurse to help with some saline solution, again when i turned up at the surgery, they were 'you again' and the nurse squeezed us in between patients!

and when they have tantrums and you just pick them up, sling them under your arm and get on with your shopping etc as you know its just a phase and will passed.

my relaxed parenting is probably viewed as child abuse by some.........infact i have just been accused of such on another thread as i have stood my boys outside on the back step mid tantrum in rain and heaven forbid snow and they werent 'appropriately dressed' ie coat etc quick shoot me now..

When any time you go for shopping from October onwards, the checkout operator asks, "Starting to stock up for Christmas?". Eh, no, this is my normal weekly (but won't last over the weekend) shop.

When you just shout "Guys, tea time".

Yes to the every kid in the street at your house during summer hols.

And how rude can some people be? I've also had the "all the same dad?" question. You can tell just by looking at them.....

On the flip side, I have been told a lot that I don't look like I'm a mother of 6 - although I'm not sure what a mother of 6 should look like........

pacific i got condolonses on the birth of ds3 and ds4 and one FAMILY member had the nerve to tell me she was disappointed when i phoned to announce his arrival, had i been in the same room i would have slapped her!

oh and when you dont buy ice creams individually as it costs a fortune, you just get the multi packs at the supermarket, my kids rarely get ice creams from the ice cream van!

6! well done somethingwillturnup :)

i get told i dont look like a mother of 5, or i dont look old enough... i look like me and yes i got pregnant with my first at shock horror 19, still with the same man and very happy, he works, i sah, we have a mortgage and arent on benefits

'Tis outrageous, isn't it, 4madboys .

Oh, and I ment to say as well, I too refer to my lot at 'my troops' or 'the Merry Men'.

My DS3 (4 year age gap to his next older brother) calls the 2 older ones 'guys' in exactly the same tone of voice I use

yes, hugely irritating, no 'how lovely to have another healthy baby and a birth that went smoothly etc,' just 'oh another boy...' FUCK OFF you insensitive cow!

Only my oldest two know the joy of ice cream van cones

And I secretly feel pleased when people go "6?!!! Really?" and my youngest is 7, so not really newly 6 iyswim

I've also had "Which ones are yours?" when we've all been out together. Um, all of them. "Oh, thought maybe the kids had brought some of their pals along".

And (this is my favourite) when I used to pick up oldest from secondary school, one of her friends asked if her 'big sister' (me!) picked her up every day. And how much older was I? Ahem. Oldest was mortified

thats fab somethingwillturnup your poor eldest!

talking of RUDENESS, i actually had people ask me, when we had dd, if i had done anything 'differently' this time ie sex wise to try and ensure we had a girl!!! umm no, we just stopped contraception and ACTUALLY had sex when we werent too tired, not very often, luckily i got preg first month of trying each time! ds1 was infact a one off!

but seriously WHY would you ask someone if they had tried any 'special sexual technique' to get a girl.......