I do believe I have the perfect number of children\u2013four.<\/p>\n
Four is the perfect balance between large families and small. Four seems just large enough that those moms with fewer children (especially just one or two) make much over my brood and my seemingly supermom abilities (ha!). And four is just enough to give me an ounce of street cred with the moms of the real large families. Four masquerades carefully between.<\/p>\n
In truth, four is really no harder than one or two (especially since they entertain each other\u2014even if it\u2019s by fighting!) and four is just few enough for me to sometimes, though very rarely, see the bottom of the laundry hamper. We do have to be creative when checking into hotels. (\u201cWhat? Another child? Oh, no, sir, that\u2019s my daughter\u2019s life-size doll.\u201d) But we do not have to purchase a Suburban or even think about a fifteen-passenger van.<\/p>\n
So having heard the refrain \u201cI don\u2019t know how you do it! I can barely manage two children!\u201d more than once, I was intrigued by Simcha Fisher\u2019s open letter \u201cTo the Mother of Only Child\u201d in the National Catholic Register.<\/p>\n