Multiple moms vs. moms of many

(my friend's kids with propped bottles)

Recently a friend, neighbor and fellow blogger of mine, who has triplets, posted a picture on Facebook of her kids being fed with propped up bottles.  There were 157 comments!  50% of the comments were negative and talked about her being a bad mom, neglecting her kids, not bonding with them, they are going to choke and die, and so on and so forth.  The other 50% of the comments were split, 25% defending parents of multiples, good for her, etc and 25% saying they had X number of kids and they would have propped a bottle too.  There were several posts from parents that said they had a 3 year old, 1 year old and a newborn (or other close in age kids) and other “multiples parents” saying that having kids close together “does not count” or “is not the same as having multiples”.  Here is my issue:  I think that having kids close together is HARDER than having multiples at MANY stages in life.  I will give the multiples moms the newborn stage.  That has got to suck no matter how you look at it.  I have never had multiples so I can’t say what you go through every day.  All I know is what my neighbor and a few other friends have done but here is the reason behind why I say that.  Her kids are all on the same schedule, eat and nap at the same time, do the same activities, etc.  My kids all nap at different times (or not at all).  They attend different schools on different days and participate in different sports.  This sucks.

 There have been times that I nursed the baby at the dinner table while we ate as a family just so we could all sit down together.  I have fed my youngest breakfast in the car on a daily basis to get the others to school on time.  I have nursed and changed diapers out in the back yard so my older kids could play with some supervision.  I have also been confined to my house for months at a time based on rotating nap schedules.  I have scheduled childcare so I could take my oldest to soccer practice in the freezing cold and not drag the others out.  During this same soccer season, I have had all of my kids out in the cold because the same soccer practices.  My kids have sat on the toilet until their legs and butt went numb waiting for me to wipe them because I was changing/feeding/tending to a younger child.  When you are up all night with a newborn or a sick child the others all still need to be up, fed, dressed and out the door the next morning.  There are very few days when you can just sit around in your pajamas all day.  As a matter of fact, I don’t think I have had one since before Allie was born (I miss pajama day).  Next year I will have 1 in school full time, 1 in preschool a few mornings a week and two at home, one that is a newborn.  Just to coordinate all of those schedules is a full time job/nightmare.  The new baby will simply be thrown into the mix and be dragged everywhere we go.  Allie will be drug everywhere as well but I am sure it won’t be as willing.  I am sure there will be several evil eyes given to me while I nurse in public and drag my brood around to soccer, swimming, school functions, etc.  I am okay with this.  I understand that I agreed to this when I decided to have kids this close together (and this many of them).  I just want to point out that being a mom is hard no matter how many and what age children.  Having kids close together is equally as hard as what moms of multiples do on a daily basis with 2 or 3 of the same age, if not harder.  Give us moms of many the credit we deserve.  And yes, I would have propped a bottle too. 

My brood 5, 3 and 1 :)