Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids

Back when I had only four kids and thought I was done, I read a book by that title.  I thought I was reading it for parenting philosophy, but it was the start of the idea that became two more actual kids in our family.  And I don't even recommend the book!  But I do recommend having more kids.  We are having such a great time!  Here are MY selfish reasons to have more kids.

1. People are your most important assets.  I was talking about this with my friend Brenda a couple of years ago.  She and Mark were listening to some guy talk about wealth management, and he brought up this idea in that context.  If you are going to invest in anything for a long term investment, the best thing to invest in is your children.  I thought that was very wise.  And true.  Even if you don't believe it, it is still true.  People are the ONLY assets that really matter in the long run.  And the people you produce--your children and grandchildren--are the assets you'll care about most at the end of your life.

2. It's easier and more fun than you think.  I think this idea came up in the book, but it is also so true!  (Well, except for the getting pregnant and staying pregnant and giving birth, which were about what I thought they would be.  It turns out some mothers DON'T forget.)  But the actual having babies here, which I thought would be pretty easy and fun, being all prepared by having four other kids and having more resources than we did when we did this before, is even better than I thought.  The time flies faster than I thought.  The babies are already starting to grow up and be easier.  They are sleeping more at night and interacting more in the day already.  They are starting to develop tiny skills already. And it seems like we just had them!

3. Having babies makes you a better person.  (I bet this is why it is a commandment to have children.  God is so smart!)  Here are some examples from my life:

When I first became a mother, I was amazed at the patience I started having that I didn't even know I had.  It turned out that I could be patient for VERY long times with tiny people who taxed my energy more than I thought would be possible.  And now that I have had babies number 5 and 6, I knew I could be patient with them, but I'm also finding I can be more patient with life.  I am more able to just breathe and let life happen, because I know how quickly this stage will be over.  They will be little babies for only a year.  At this point in my life, years seem very short.  And our baby year is already a quarter of the way done.  It goes so fast!  When I find myself clenching and wishing things would hurry, I remember that more often, and it helps me be patient--with life and even with myself.

I am more creative when I have babies.  I don't know why, but ideas come more quickly and abundantly.  Sometimes I am even kept up in the night by ideas when I have babies.  I think my best Christmas cards have been on the years I've had babies.  Right now I keep getting ideas about my house--how I am going to remodel one of my bathrooms, how I am going to reorganize my kids' living space, how I am going to decorate the babies' room once they have a real room (that is coming sooner than I want too...), how I am going to make a protective cover for some of my chairs.  I also get ideas for baby showers, birthdays and blog posts. :)

I am more efficient and clean when I have babies.  I care more about the environment my family is living in, and I take better care of it.  I am amazed (and a little appalled) by what I could let slide during my pregnancy.  It is probably good that I slowed down so much because it helped me to grow these babies, but my house suffered for it.  And now I am enjoying a late nesting--making things tidy and running a tight ship again.

At this point I feel like to be a good writer I should have a conclusion--you know, summarize for the reader and drive the point home and all that.  But I only had the three selfish reasons--if you don't count things like thinking it would be good for our kids, or the fact that I love babies and two of mine are leaving me soon.  I thought they were good ones.  The point is for me to have it recorded for myself.  And the beauty of having this be my blog is that I've decided I don't have to follow rules about conclusions.   If you care for a summary, it is here and you are free to read it again. It may feel a little abrupt to just end; like you're coming to a cliff and just stopping.  But I've decided on my blog that is completely okay. And now, dear reader, you've had some warning.  So like on many of my posts, I'm going to just stop writing when I feel like I've said what I want to say.  Like right now.  The end.