What They Don't Prepare You For When you have a family (g).png

Hey guys....having spent this last weekend with my husband's parents, his siblings and our kids, it made me think about family and some of the things we don't think about when we first meet our partner to be. Whether we're young or old, we meet this person, really get into them, then BAM!!! we're married and along come the kids. That's how it was for me. Met my husband at University, he was my liming buddy and best friend, then later on things changed, I knew would be a great husband the marriage talk came up and BAM!!! I was married but I never really considered children. Marriage seemed like you were hanging out with your best friend all the time but now they didn't have to go home.

Like I said kids weren't in my mind, then BAM!!! I got pregnant on the honeymoon and the kids kept coming. One a year for four years....what a shocker. At first, to be honest, it didn't really register that I had kids, I was so active and running around doing all that was necessary to ensure the family was fine. It's only after the last child that it registered that I had just had a baby and I kinda started to enjoy a baby......crazy huh?

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Yes...I was what is known as very fertile and I didn' get fat ankles or nose or anything. I was even playing cricket and running between wickets with my first baby...I was crazy active for most of them except number four, I guess I was burnt out by then, but I knew it was possible to get pregnant again so I retired the baby maker. So the part no one warns you about is the amount of work we women have to do, taking care if the kids, the husband, the home and the job. Yes, ladies, we are FRIGGING MULTI-TASKERS!!!

I didn't even realise the pace I moved at when the kids were babies when they were 6,5,3 and 2. There was a time we moved from Trinidad to Curacao, we lived there for 2.5 years and my mom and some friends came to visit. My friend who was also my daughter's Godfather was an avid cameraman and video buff so he took videos of everything. 3 or 4 years later after we had returned to Trinidad, we were all together with that same friend (Godfather) and we decided to watch the videos he had taken while visiting us in Curacao and OMG!!! in all of them I was running around like a crazy person, dealing with meals, cleaning up messes, preparing the kids, running around clearing and cleaning. I never rested or sat down once....good God I definitely can't do that now and thank God my kids are big....28, 27, 25 and 24.

Yes, kids are a lot of work but I always say that with every child you are given a blessing, you are given something. I know exactly what I got with each child - a job for my husband with one, a house with the next, a new car with the third and better finances with the last. Children are a blessing and I know in this century this generation is very much into not having as many kids as the former generation. My great grandmother had 6 kids and my aunts all had at least 3-4 kids. These days everyone only wants one or two.

So enjoy your kids and your family because even though no one prepares you for the amount of work it entails, and how it tests your patience, it builds your ability to love unconditionally. Check you soon.