...And Don't Hit Your Sister With The Dog!

Movement brought another chapter into raising multiples. What would be exciting history making events for one child at a time, suddenly becomes an obstacle course with hazards at every turn. At one of the few Mother’s of Multiple club meetings which I attended before I gave birth, they had given out a list of local playgrounds which were completely enclosed with locked gates. Now I knew why. There was no way one person and sometimes even two, could take them to playground that was not enclosed. It was like herding cats. They would run off in different directions, curiously, exploring their new world. They could pick up speed much more quickly than I thought and suddenly, I saw a beautiful bucolic serene playground in our suburban town as one danger zone after another. The grade school playground equipment was too big for them; The one with no fences set right up to four streets – no way; The one with the open duck pond next to the slide – ARE YOU CRAZY!!! ; The one with a pond for fishing on one side and open woods on the other – HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!!!. These weren’t playgrounds, they were potentials for disasters. We would drive twenty minutes to find a fenced in playground where they could run around without giving mom a nervous breakdown. Even then, it was hard to be relaxed. Trying to eat rocks and sticks as any toddler would is normal (or so they tell you when you freak out in the doctor’s office) but to patrol three of them was not easy. I would be constantly looking at everyone’s mouth while trying to give them space to explore. I would see parents of older children sitting on benches, talking to each other and not even aware of their children and wonder if that would ever be me. They even were able to read magazines and one had a whole book with them. Would that ever be possible??? I couldn’t imagine going somewhere with them and not continually counting ‘1,2,3; 1,2,3; 1,2, 3.