Many of us know that with large families come long grocery lists, large dining room tables and beyond hectic holidays- especially when your cousins, grandparents, nieces/nephews all get together.
Growing up with siblings, you learn to cope with the loud noises, arguments, and adjust to sound of bare feet running across the halls and throughout the house.There are many pros and cons to having siblings-constant battles of who the "favorite child" is, who has to volunteer to help unload the groceries from the car, or who has to do the dishes. On a more positive note, there is never a dull moment. You always have someone to hangout with, and always have a friend at hand. No, you do not always receive the Christmas present you asked for and yes, sometimes you miss out on events because you have to drive one of your siblings somewhere. But at the end of the day, your family is there through thick and thin, and you wouldn't trade them for the world.
Here is an inside look on what it's like to have a "Full House":
1. There is always a battle for who gets shot gun in the car.
2. Your friends are their friends. Sometimes, your friends come over and hang out with your siblings more than they hang out with you.
3. You often have your own debates during family dinner. Whether it is a political debate, a fight about who gets to use the car, or who has to do the dishes, you always risked family dinners getting interrupted by some sort of argument.
4. They steal your clothes. There is nothing worse than going into your closet to grab a shirt that you want to wear, and not being able to find it because one of your siblings took it.
5. The groceries never go bad. Your parents buy multiple gallons of milk, loaves of bread and cartons of eggs from Costco and they never go bad.
6.You're always in good company. Even if all of your friends are busy, or you don't feel like hanging with them, you can stay home and have plenty of fun with your family.
7. Built in babysitters. You've become accustomed to canceling weekend plans. After a while, your parents never had to pay for a babysitter. Instead, they call and say "keep an eye on your sister/brother." Unfortunately, it is usually at a wage of $0.00/hour.
8. Your parents turned you into weekend housekeepers and handymen.
...and you often rebelled when you got roped into helping.
9. You had to dress up for family pictures, which was always an unnecessarily complicated ordeal.
10. Your parents try to make you all match on family outings. For safety reasons, or just for utter humiliation?
11. Hand-me-downs. Why purchase all new clothes when there are plenty of perfectly good clothes in the attic?
12. If you have younger siblings, you spent all your paychecks on them for ice cream outings, or any other purchases because they never had any money.
13. You’re not socially awkward. You learned to be very loud if you wanted to be heard. You're not afraid to say anything and sometimes have no filter.
14. The fight about what TV shows to watch. This usually erupted into an argument that resulted in your parents unplugging the TV altogether.
15. If you're older, you can still boss around your siblings (within reason, of course).
16. There are times when your siblings' friends of opposite genders come over and don't hang out with you.
17. Sometimes all your siblings gang up on you and roast you, and you have no defense mechanism.
18. You have no chance of getting away with anything. If you do or say something to one of your siblings, it always gets back to Mom and Dad.
19. You are forced to learn how to make a lot of apologies you may or may not have felt sincere about.
20. The younger siblings always try to hang out with the older ones. Remember on New Year's Eve when you were fighting to stay up until midnight with the big kids?
21. It is not uncommon to find that your stuff has been misplaced or tampered with.
22. You know them so well you know exactly when they're lying.
23. You have your own personal stylists- and they aren't afraid to be brutally honest.
24. If you bring home your boyfriend/girlfriend, you risk the chances of them never coming back or, maybe, loving your siblings more than you.
25. You have your own body guards and protectors. No one is going to mess with you or they will have to face the wrath of your entire family.
26. They take care of you when you're sick. You always have someone bring you medicine and check your temperature when you're sick.
27. You have way more fun with them than with your real friends.
28. At least one of your siblings is the "responsible one."
29. You have one or more "honorary siblings." There is always that one friend that comes over so much that he/she has basically become a part of the family.
30. You can never keep your leftovers in the fridge. In a big family, someone is always hungry.
31. You always have someone to help you with your homework.
32. Somewhere in your distant family, you get used to new babies... there is another one to add to the list.
33. You learn to eat very fast. You often hear the phrase: "Do you know what they call picky eaters in a big family? Skinny."
34. Your parents have trouble getting all the important moments on tape. After so many years of recording holidays, birthdays, first steps, first haircut, etc., it gets old.
35. Christmas "Secret Santas" very rarely end well. On Christmas Day, there are hundreds of gifts under the Christmas tree. It is expensive to buy everyone in the family gifts, so you often times have to improvise and get something cheap or make something cheesy.
36. You will rarely see your parents without a cup of coffee.
37. Someone in the family ALWAYS has their phone out filming family events.
38. The little ones are always asking to tag along. No, you can't come with us to the R-rated movie.
39. You've become accustomed to the look that the waiters/waitresses get when your family walks in the restaurant.
40. At the end of the day, you love your family and know that you wouldn't be the same without them. There is never a dull moment, and you will always have a shoulder to lean on.
