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Incredible, if i'm reading this right (tired eyes, kids were up all night), you have 8 children? Curious if you have any words of wisdom to share around managi

Incredible, if i'm reading this right (tired eyes, kids were up all night), you have 8 children? Curious if you have any words of wisdom to share around managing daily life with that many kids?

mikece 5y ago
I don't know about it being wisdom but this is a rough outline: 1. Have a schedule. 2. Do your best to stick to it. 3. Have a sense of humor and don't treat kids like mini-adults when things go wrong (schedule-wise or otherwise). 4. Enjoy being with them -- they will be grown and gone before you know it. One thing that's possible with several/many kids is coopetition between the groups (can the boys get their schoolwork done before the girls? can the younger kids get their after-meal chores done before the older ones?). We also home-school and this is a great opportunity to teach delayed gratification (eg: do you want to take your recess now at 09:45 or keep working and get all of your schoolwork done by 1pm and have THE REST of the day free to play?). Kids don't really "get" delayed gratification at first so you do need to over-incentivize it but as they begin to build the habit of "work hard, play hard" you don't have to dangle as many carrots to encourage them. My older kids try to get their work done early so they can do "revenue jobs" for the neighbors (mowing grass in the summer, raking leaves in the fall, shoveling snow in the winter). None of this is direct advice for others; one thing having several kids has taught me is how different each of them are by personality. If I only had one or two kids I think the differences in personality between them and me is something I would perceive as an issue of some sort but with eight I realize it's just a personality difference. I could go on but I'll stop before this becomes a wall-of-text reply.
- cutthegrass2 5y ago
  Thank you for replying, and for the nuggets of wisdom! Merry Christmas!

Incredible, if i'm reading this right (tired eyes, kids were up all night), you have 8 children? Curious if you have any words of wisdom to share around managing daily life with that many kids?

mikece 5y ago

I don't know about it being wisdom but this is a rough outline: 1. Have a schedule. 2. Do your best to stick to it. 3. Have a sense of humor and don't treat kids like mini-adults when things go wrong (schedule-wise or otherwise). 4. Enjoy being with them -- they will be grown and gone before you know it. One thing that's possible with several/many kids is coopetition between the groups (can the boys get their schoolwork done before the girls? can the younger kids get their after-meal chores done before the older ones?). We also home-school and this is a great opportunity to teach delayed gratification (eg: do you want to take your recess now at 09:45 or keep working and get all of your schoolwork done by 1pm and have THE REST of the day free to play?). Kids don't really "get" delayed gratification at first so you do need to over-incentivize it but as they begin to build the habit of "work hard, play hard" you don't have to dangle as many carrots to encourage them. My older kids try to get their work done early so they can do "revenue jobs" for the neighbors (mowing grass in the summer, raking leaves in the fall, shoveling snow in the winter). None of this is direct advice for others; one thing having several kids has taught me is how different each of them are by personality. If I only had one or two kids I think the differences in personality between them and me is something I would perceive as an issue of some sort but with eight I realize it's just a personality difference. I could go on but I'll stop before this becomes a wall-of-text reply.

cutthegrass2 5y ago
Thank you for replying, and for the nuggets of wisdom! Merry Christmas!