But, you look so calm.....

It never ceases to amaze me at the comments I get when someone finds out I have 14 children. I guess I should be flattered when they say things like, "you have 14 kids?! But, you look so nice and calm and you have all your hair!". I mean, really, what do they expect a woman who has 14 children to look like? Clothes all wrinkled and disheveled, teeth rotten and missing, and the 3 or 4 scraggly hairs she has left to her name as white as the driven snow? It makes me wonder if they've actually seen another mom of several children out there that really DOES look like that! You just have to wonder what is going through their minds when they make comments like that. Then, it's usually followed by, "I only have 1 (or sometimes 2) kid and he/she drives me CRAZY, I don't know how you do it!" Yeah, well if I allowed my 14 acted like their 1 or 2, I'd be on that funny farm with them. It seems every week when I'm grocery shopping there will be this one little guy, bless his heart, in his shopping cart screaming bloody murder while is mother calmly tries to ignore him and go about her shopping, or she is saying something like, "Now, Johnny, I don't know why you are acting like this, you know better!"......like it's a totally new thing for him and she just doesn't know where in the world these actions have come from. I know exactly where they came from. Little Johnny will throw those fits in the grocery store because he's allowed to throw them at home and usually ends up getting his little way. I don't know how many times I've wanted to walk up to that poor mom and say, "You know, I have 14 children and not ONE of them has ever acted like that in a store", or anywhere else for that matter. Now, don't get me wrong, my children are NO angels, but they DO know that kind of behavior would not be tolerated for one minute, so they don't even try. It starts at home. That kind of behavior has to be nipped in the bud at home when it's tried, then little Johnny won't be pulling that stuff in the grocery story, at least not more than a couple of times anyway :-).

I hope I don't live to eat these words some day. Our little Emma who just turned 2 years old not long ago and has Down Syndrome, has a hair trigger temper and likes to try and throw a fit at the drop of a hat. She not only can scream with the best of them, she has a very loud, guttural, very annoying cry (all my Downey angels have had that same cry). So, if I'm ever in the grocery store with her and she starts in, I'm likely to have one of those dear young mothers coming up to me and lending ME some advice! Oh wait, not to worry, that's the beauty of a big family, I don't have to take Miss Emma with me to the grocery store until she learns better (which may take much longer than most). I have plenty of built in babysitters! Maybe that's why I can look so calm and put together, I have the option of taking some or all with me or not. Come to think of it, I think I've always been by myself or with hubby when those comments are made. Hmm.....