After recently announcing that we are pregnant with our third little one, we couldn’t be more excited. Hearing everyone congratulate us is great, but then they quickly turn to, “You ready to be outnumbered?”
Being outnumbered has always been the plan. Growing up I was one of two kids. It has been great as an adult because holidays get scheduled where one year we with our parents, the next year we’re at our in-laws; as a child though it was a completely different story.
My sister is three years older than I am and we never really got along. Traveling on trips we’d get in fights and end up doing things on our own. In college I lived with a family with five kids and I loved that there was always someone. Because of this I always said that I was never going to only have two kids.
My wife grew up with four brothers and loved it. Granted, she was the only girl and so she was the favorite. But she loved that she had siblings to be friends with in school. With three of them being younger than her, she enjoyed watching them grow up as she’s six years older than her youngest brother.
Because of these moments we had in our lives, my wife and I talked about the number of kids we wanted. We have always wanted four kids and I talk more about the reasoning for four here. With number three on their way you start to think, can being outnumbered really be that bad?
As parents, we all have those nights when dad gets home from work, mom has been with the kids all day and we just want a break. Well, breaks come when the kids are asleep. Having a toddler, new walker and new born sounds exhausting.
I feel like it was all the rage to have big families back when our parents were little. Why does two seem so overwhelming? I guess it’s not like grandma will complain about how hard it was. There is something though that is amazing about a big family, outnumbered or not.
The thing is, parenting is hard. Whether you have one kid, two kids or multiple. At the end of the day you enjoy every single one of them. You enjoy the memories you make as you chase around the oldest, while the next child is screaming and the youngest is about to fall off the bed. It’s a workout that I am actually really excited for. Not only is it going to be fun for us as the parents, but our kids will have each other to play with, protect and tease. The family dynamic is something that is so important and I can say, being outnumbered is my biggest dream coming to life.
