Saturday, April 17, 2010

You might be an older child in a large family if...

... You know what it's like to sweep the floor after you just swept it and still have the same amount of dirt in the pile.

...You estimate that you've changed thousands (at least!) of dirty diapers.

... You learned to drive in a fifteen passenger (or so) van

... You have to turn on music when you're home alone, because otherwise it's just too quiet.

... You love holding babies.

... You can see through most tricks your siblings try to play on you, leaving them asking, "How did you know??!?!"

... When you say you want to have lots of children, you really mean it because you are familiar with all of the work that goes into taking care of children.

...You know tons of ways to get babies (and small children) to sleep.

... At eleven, you knew more about caring for babies than a whole room full of teenagers.

... You are good at interrogating your siblings.

... You recognize almost every kind of crying, and like labeling them. "That's sooo fake!" "Oh, poor baby, he's tired." "You better give her back to her mom, she's hungry."

... You know more about childcare than the average mom with the average number of children

... Parents don't give you the normal instructions when they hand you their baby, because they know you already know all that.

... You can quiet a screaming child faster than anyone else. (even their parents at times!)

... You instinctively ask three times for something before even expecting an answer.

... You can turn off your senses and focus, and handle a dizzying number of tasks and responsibilities far in advance of any normal, non-elite (read: small family) child, adult, or parent.

... You learn mind manipulation tricks that would be the envy of anyone (not excluding Nazi psychologists) for convincing stubborn little tykes to eat food they don't like.

... You learn to like anything set before you, and how to eat it fast.

... Your dream car has a rack on top for... anything you wanted to put on it.

... You consider a reading speed of -700wpm gruelingly slow.

... You consider it common knowledge that books got by one member of the family is public domain and up for reading by anyone else in the family.

... You believe it is the highest duty of every sibling to listen to what you say... for their own good.

... You do not consider genre to be a limiting factor for what gets on your reading list, but merely a handy reference point in conversation.

... "Quiet Time" means "Relatively Peaceful Time" to you.

... Bed time is looked forward to, not because of hard work done (though that plays a part too), but because you can close your eyes without someone pulling a prank on you or asking if something is wrong.

... Grammar is only applicable when writing; half sentences are the rule of the day because you rely on everyone else filling in the blanks.

... You don't bat an eye when someone runs in crying because their "arm is broken!" or because they "fell and broke their neck!" or because of a skinned knee so deep you can see bone... and other things.

... You don't jump at the sound of glass breaking, and instinctively cordon off the area and start cleaning it up.

... You find yourself singing songs from movies such as Winnie the Pooh and Peter Pan , as well as quoting movies such as The Aristocats and Lady and the Tramp

(About half of these are mine, and about another half are from Jay, and the remaining four are from Felicity and Kaitland. :) Anyone have any more to add?)

4 comments:

  1. Hi!
    My name is Rachel Hipps. I found your blog from "a week in femine dress'. I am also Hillary Hipps' cousin. I really like your blog! Do you mind if I follow it?

    http://rachelkeiblog.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Rachel!

    Ah, I see. I was wondering if you were related to her. :)

    Thanks! I am glad you enjoyed my blog. That is fine with me if you follow it! :)

    Have a great day!

    Blessings,
    Carissa

    ReplyDelete
  3. Carissa, Please check out my blog, you can follow me if you want to. :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. hahaha!! I love that! I know what you mean, we don't have a huge family(only 5 of us kids) but a lot of this does aplly! And I'm the oldest!

    ReplyDelete