Count your blessings

Not all Catholic families are large. The Blessed Mother and Jesus were both only children. God’s designs for His families are many, and the blessings are great no matter the size, provided that we seek His will and follow His plans. I just happen to be one of nine and love the memories I have of growing up in such a big family, enough to want to give my own children something similar. Here are just a handful of some of the advantages of growing up in a large family…

You have built-in friends, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. There’s always someone who is willing to play cards, Monopoly, or throw the baseball around.

If someone starts getting on your nerves, there’s bound to be another sibling that isn’t quite as annoying at that moment.

Sleepovers occur nightly. You never have to worry about being afraid of the boogey-man if you share a room with 2 or 3 others.

You have the distinction of taking up an entire pew at church.

You learn that picnic benches are not just for outside. Who needs to spend money on kitchen chairs when a bench can fit 5-6 kids?

You never have more than one room in the house to clean for Saturday chores.

If something gets broken in the house, the blaming finger can’t automatically point to you.

If your older siblings were good students, as my older siblings were, you start the first day of school with a fabulous reputation.

Inside jokes abound.

Multi-tasking is second nature. In a family of nine, five of whom are females, you very quickly become adept at applying make-up in a three-square-inch space of mirror while blow-drying your hair and carrying on a conversation as you wait for your turn on the toilet.

You don’t have to go shopping for clothes. They come in large, plastic garbage bags from your neighbors and cousins. Occasionally, brown paper grocery bags of food mysteriously show up on your front porch – and in your delight over the goodies you don’t even notice the embarrassed sigh your mother throws up to heaven.

And the blessings only continue as you grow up.

There is always someone to talk to on the phone. You have a multitude of cousins for your children. There are plenty of godparents to go around. And when you come together for one celebration or another, and your grandmother is surrounded by all her progeny, she can rightly call herself the matriarch of a clan.