Here's a little piece I wrote awhile back. The question is popping up again *wink* so here's my answer.
Here, in a five hundred words or less, I will describe just how I do it. It being taking care of 5 children that are 5 years apart in age.
"You do what you gotta do."
Huh? That's it, you say? Well, yeah.
I could overcomplicate it and tell you things like "I get up in the morning and pour cereal and milk in bowls and tell them to get dressed and tie their shoes and brush their hair." How do you change a diaper? There that's how I do it. Imagine doing it twice, there you go, that's how you handle two kids in diapers. Or at one point in my life, 3 in diapers. Repeat once more and chide myself that I should have bought stock in P&G years ago. Not so difficult really. Or at dinner, I dish five plates instead of the average two. Some days I think I deserve a nifty lunch lady hair net.
Well now you are disappointed. I'm not that great amazing superwoman you thought I was. Well it is kinda tricky figuring out how to squeeze five car seats and boosters into a mini-van (which are not as kid friendly as advertised but that's another rant). Or why the best fruit bowls come in packages of 4. So I buy two packages and then I have 3 leftover and how do you split that between 5 hungry kids. Math was never my strong suit so don't bother explaining multiplication to me again. Besides where the heck am I going to store 20 fruit bowls?
Here's another favorite answer to that question. "I'm insane." That one usually causes people to take a step back and smile like "Don't make any quick movements and maybe she won't notice us." But you know, any mom is insane by the very nature of being a mom. Trying to determine what turned your toddler's poop bright purple is not something normal sane people think about on a daily basis.
Sometimes I just shrug and say "I don't know." Cause I really don't. It's like asking how someone breathes. I'm being figurative there, I was a biology major in college, you don't need to go into specifics again, thanks. I get up in the morning and do what needs to be done to keep the kids feed, clean, alive, and not screaming so loud that my eardrums break. Some days it's one series of messes and mistakes after another. Other days I tuck them all into bed and no one has colored on the wall or poked another's eyes out and I think, this isn't so bad after all. Course as soon as I think that, someone wakes up and mumbles, "my tummy hurts" before puking Spaghettio's all over me and their dry clean only comforter.
So in summary (cause I like summaries just in case you missed something) "you do what you gotta do", "I'm insane", and "I don't know." Take your pick and whatever you do, don't bother replying. Cause I'm already ignoring you to tell one of the kids to quit picking their nose while I fish a Barbie doll shoe out of the baby's mouth and mentally calculating how many minutes until bedtime.
In Memory of my Grandma who taught me that you never have to grow up. I love you and miss you every day.
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