What I had for lunch: Tuesday
If I ever go somewhere with my mom and one or less sibling, she'll buy me a treat.
Just last weekend she bought me ice cream at the mall! Or Laura, remember that time 2 years ago that she bought us smoothies? Let's not forget the time she and I drove to New York for a weekend and ate lavishly (read: anything you want off the McDonald's value menu. ANYTHING!)
But, should more than 1 other sibling be around... there will be no treats. There will be efficiency and lots of keeping to the budget... but there will be no treats.
It's a fact of life that every parent only has X amount of love, Y amount of time, and Z amounts of money.
An only child's happiness = X + Y + Z.
My general happiness = X/9 + Y/9 + Z/9.
Here's the trick though. Convince your older siblings to move far away. Put your younger siblings to bed. And then? From 9-11pm... it's all yours.
I can only hope to find myself in the type of situation where my mom might buy me half off Christmas chocolate. I can only hope; I have no real control. But I can usually bank on securing attention for an hour or two at night.
At after-the-kids-are-in-bed o'clock, the party begins! We do wild things like heat up frozen pizzas! Drink diet coke! Eat date squares that were wrapped up nicely for lunches tomorrow! (actually, that's just my dad and me. Don't tell my mom) On occasion we will even go so nuts as to splash a little liquor in our diet coke! It's w-w-w-ild!
From 7am till 9pm I can say, "Hey, I planned which races I want to do this weekend. Who wants to hear it?" and my dad will answer, "Can you set the table" or my mom might say, "Was somebody supposed to pick Jack up from that birthday party or something?"
From 9pm till 11pm I can say, "Hey, I planned which races I want to do this weekend. Who wants to hear it?" and my dad will say, "I'm worried about that adventure race" and my mom will answer "I read an article about a triathlon guy."
SEE!? MORE RELATED!!
Last night we made a delicious rising crust pepperoni pizza.
Today for lunch I'm eating a left over slice!
(In addition: an apple, an orange, a cranberry square, only 3 cookies*, and this weird wannabe fruit rollup thing)
* Well, you'll only ever see 3 at onnnnccee **
** No really, only 3.
18 comments:
You missed an opportunity in this post to point out how this relates to the deepest fear of ever child under the age of 10 -- the idea that after they go to bed the partying starts and that bedtime is just a huge charade used to do fun things without them. Only in the case of your family replace "do fun things" with "love." Suckers.
I love your family. A lot. Can I come to one of your 9-11pm parties?!
Bri- very true.
Stephanie- heck no! Then there wouldn't be enough pizza for lunch the next day!
My older brother and I like to talk about how different our lives would have been had our younger siblings not been born. This consists mainly of how many more snacks there would be.
I am only one of 2, and I still don't get a treat whenever I go out with my mom! You so lucky.
Also. Pizza. mmmmm
One time me & mom went to the Blue Jays game (just us! I can't even the cirumstances which caused that event to occur...). Anyway, we got hotdogs from the vendor, pop, AND popcorn. I thought I died and went to heaven,
wait.. so you have nine siblings?? erm.. well, I guess it would be eight including you... dang... I thought five total was a lot..
We only had 2 kids in my family and I thought I wasn't loved enough, I can't even imagine 9.
Late family nights are one of the only things I miss since moving out of the parents.
I totally get that... there are five kids (including me) in our family, and I've noticed that too! If it's just me or just me and my sister: treat. If my brother who still lives at home comes too: (usually)no treat.
And I totally know you ate nine cookies again. You're not fooling anyone with your little "divide and conquer" trick. :)
Can I move in with your family?! Although then, your happiness will be x/10 + y/10, etc. etc. etc.
haha your family sounds great. plus, i wish your mom would make my lunches! ;)
you rock for saying w-w-w-wild! also, that attention getting strategy is genius
Haha sounds a lot like my family, granted yours is a little busier and crazier. But I definitely have to coordinate when my parents can talk to me without worrying about my brothers, haha.
Birth order fascinates me. I have the pleasure of being the baby by ten years, which makes me a pseudo-only child. So I have to be the center of attention _and_ I'm spoiled. Not really about the spoiled part.
I always wanted to be a part of a big family, and that's sort of spilled over into wanting to HAVE a big family. I honestly can't imagine having nine kids though--your parents should get some kind of medal for heroism!
You've made math fun. Kudos.
There are benefits and pitfalls to both situations (having many siblings or having none). I agree that the X+Y+Z situation is nice but I've always wanted siblings... plus all that attention that we only children get can get old sometimes.
Good post though... I think how you managed to work your meal into your family story.
dang. 9? wow.
i'm only 1 of 2, and my parents have similar responses when i talk and ask them questions, so.. that might just be parents.
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