Thursday, July 10, 2008

The Perks to having 3 small children

I complain a lot...and I always have. But I thought I would devote an entire post to the benefits that come with having multiple small children. Oh, yes, there are lots of perks. LOTS. And I'm sure the perks only increase with the number of children that you have. Those of you out there with 4 or 5 children (or more?) surely could add a lot to the following list...but bear with me. I only have 3. ;)

#1: You are never lonely. Seriously, if you get bored with yourself, just have a few small children around. You won't even get lonely in the bathroom. Unless you go all the way to the upstairs bathroom when your husband comes home and hide. Not that I ever do that.

#2: You can eat what you want. If you want PB&J 7 times a week, you can have it! Leftover Spaghettios? Done. Pizza crusts? All yours. And you don't have to eat in fancy restaurants with their delicious, hot food and big portion sizes and dishwashers. Blech! Who would want that?

#3: You always have an excuse for... a dirty house. being late. not bathing. That's right! Even though I have always had dirty floors and dusty bookshelves, now when I have guests I can just shrug and point at the children. Late? No one questions you as you enter dragging your 3 little ones behind you. Greasy hair? You seem to be the martyr...sacrificing your own cleanliness for the needs of your children.

#4: You are easily pleased. Honestly, there are few other times in your life when you can feel so accomplished for accomplishing so little. I will be home for 10 hours, and if the dishwasher gets emptied and refilled, I feel like I should get mentioned in the local gazette. And if I cook dinner on top of that...DAMN. NBC evening news special.

#5: You are the supreme genius in your realm. Never again will you work in a place where you are so much smarter and more worldly than your cubicle mates. You are the "go-to" person for fun animal facts, religion, medical emergencies, etc. Last week I knew that the animal on the tv was an ocelot. When Jeff Corwin confirmed this, Andrew looked at me like I was a god. Oh, yes. Because I knew the ocelot. Lily requests my pictures of cats and elephants so frequently and exclaims with such delight that I am almost positive I should be selling these pictures to an art museam. According to her...I friggin' ROCK at art. Wait until I put THAT on the old resume in a few years.

#6: You know where you will get skin cancer someday. The middle of your upper back. Where you just can't reach to put suntan lotion and there's no one else around that can help you. And you spend all day out in the sun. But at least you know so you can make a doctor aware.


That's all I can think of for now. Would anyone care to add any to my list?

5 comments:

CARRIE said...

I think you've done a superb list, and I can't wait until you add more.

HawleyFamily said...

You forgot one of the most important things...3 TAX WRITE OFFS!!! :) How about ALWAYS having an excuse on why you (by you, I mean ME) can't excercise and get those last 15 pounds off. Also, when there are three, there is almost always one that wants to cuddle when I want to as well. :)

Erin said...

This is awesome. I would like to add that "Because I said so" is an actual, perfectly acceptable answer to any question. Not many other scenarios I can think of where this would fly.

Kelsey said...

Funny stuff Giselle.

Thanks for the phone chat last week. Matt does have another interview, next Monday, so I may be needing those contacts. Yay? Yikes!

Keri said...

Hey, Giselle, I was sent here by our mutual friend from Louisville, Carrie. You and I were actually in music class together when you just had Andrew and I just had Bailey...does that ring a bell? (Oops! I really didn't intend that pun!)

Anyway, she sent me here because I just had my third child on June 11. My second was born in October '06 like Lily. And you have done an excellent job here of hitting on the perks of having 3 kiddoes! I can always use reminders of the positives, since the negatives tend to be pretty hard to forget most of the time.

I've perused a few other posts here, too -- great blog!

Keri in Louisville