Livre d'Or

Your family of origin has quite a few sibs too, right? I'm the oldest of four close-aged siblings and I think my natural habitat is a crowd. It is strange that I ended up having these children in my life despite never wanting kids, but they are extremely awesome humans. And the middle ones are pretty self-propelling at this stage. In certain respects, though not globally of course, they contribute as much as they need. Like they entertain us at least as much as we entertain them, and teach us about and introduce us to new stuff, they can prepare their own snacks and participate in meal planning and sometimes spontaneously bake for the family. They even occasionally volunteer get the little one to finally go to sleep when several adults have tried and failed (teen biorhythms are an advantage when your 4yo sibling is awake! and bouncy! and demanding! at 2 am). But yeah, three actual parents plus two bonus adults usually feels like a good-sized team to handle two teens and a little, and I get a lot of the positives of having children in my life without most of the toughest parts of parenting.