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Six Kids, No TV and An Opossum
Dawn Meehan, mom of 6, talks about finding success and happiness cooped up at home during spring break.
It was the third day of spring break. A break for my kids, not me.
I am a stay-at-home mom of six kids (seven, if you count my husband, Joe) and they wanted to let me know what a good time they were having—as early in the morning and as loudly as possible. Who needs an alarm clock when you have 14-year-old Austin and 10-year-old Jackson tearing through the house yelling at the top of their lungs (the only volume at which a kid can yell inside the house) and whipping pillows at each other first thing in the A.M.? Good morning!
Our television had been broken for three weeks. The part we needed to fix it was apparently being delivered by water buffalo. Joe’s car was in the shop. “You don’t mind if I take the van, do you?” he’d said the night before. No, of course not. Being cooped up in the house with six kids and no TV to occupy them has always been my idea of fun.
I got out of bed, dreading what the day might bring. At least the weather was warm—46 degrees, which almost qualified as tropical here in Chicago in April. I’d been praying for days for the snow to melt so I could send the kids outside to play and burn off some energy.
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I walked into the kitchen, spilled cereal crunching underfoot, and made myself a cup of coffee. “Can we go outside and play?” my three youngest asked.
“Sure,” I said, opening the kitchen door and releasing them. Well, even if the sky said Antarctica, the calendar said it was spring. Another cup of coffee and I might be brave enough to help Savannah, 12, my oldest daughter, tackle the mess in her bedroom.
Savannah likes her room nice and neat. She shares a room with Lexi, 7, who prefers disarray.
“Don’t worry, Savannah,” I said. “I’ll help you shovel a path to your bed.” We unearthed Barbie dolls, Barbie dresses, Barbie’s car and washing machine, a headless Barbie (Clayton’s handiwork?), Community Chest cards from Monopoly (oh, that’s where those went), wrapping paper from a birthday party two months before and a hard brown object that looked suspiciously like a petrified hot dog.
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