Being a part of a large family can be aggravating and wear on your patience. Compromise becomes a way of life. Finding solitude becomes nearly impossible. I can tell you a little bit of what it was like for me, and I bet you can agree.
1. When A turkey becomes a meal for an entire week.
Turkey on a Sunday is part of the meal for an entire week. You learn quickly how to stretch out meals and make them last.
2. Your home becomes a petri dish.
When one person becomes sick, the rest follow suite. Illness spreads throughout the house in the matter of a week. Even though your parents disinfect the house and quarantine the ill family members, the illness still manages to make its way through the family.
3. 12 brothers and sisters, who needs friends?
All the siblings become each others entertainment and play dates. It was rare to have someone who was exclusively your friend, and not also your bothers or your sisters
4. Opening gifts on Christmas morning becomes a free for all.
Starting off from the youngest to the oldest seldom worked and more often than not became a chaotic fiasco.
5. Clothing, if it is not on sale then you don't purchase it.
Hand me downs? Doesn't everyone wear hand me downs, that is what I thought. Growing up, I always heard from my older sisters, " I remember when that was my favorite shirt." When we did get something brand new, we cherished it. For example, my little brother slept with a pair of snoopy boots under his pillow for a month straight.
6. Sharing a room all your life makes having a college roommate seem natural.
Sharing a room has its pros and cons. You always have someone to talk to but also someone to annoy you. It teaches you the art of compromise.
7. Family vacations are usually taken in your own backyard.
Stories around the bonfire are about as far away from home that we ventured. If we did get to go on vacation, it was a day trip, two cars had to be taken and a head count done upon arrival and departure. We even left one kid behind one time.
8. Working for it is a lesson you learn at a very young age.
If you wanted something that was not in the family budget, you had to earn it whether is was shoveling snow, selling candy bars to the neighborhood, or mowing lawns.
9. When arguments took place, it resembled the show survivor and alliances were formed.
Fighting was usually over belongings and the question of "who did it", whatever that may be. But, with a set of 12 eyes, ears, and mouths in the house no one ever got away with anything.
10. The notoriety of being part of a large family, in a small town.
Being number ten in a family of twelve, not a day went by when I didn't hear things like, "Wait, twelve kids came out of your mother?, Were any of them twins?" As I went through school, I always heard, "I know your brother and I had your sister in class." It even went to the extent of having one of my teachers say, "I went to school with your older sister." Just in general, it was natural to hear people say, "Hey, you are a Joseph, aren't you?"
Although being part of a huge family has its down sides, there is a much more positive side. Having the love, understanding, and support of a large family is irreplaceable. It far out shines the downside.
