I was thinking today about a phenomenon I have noticed.

When I go out with my kids–all three of them–I get a lot of looks and a fair number of comments about my situation. I’m young to have three kids, I know, and I look even younger than I am, so I understand that I might stand out; but since we added the third actual person to the mix–as opposed to when I just had the two older ones and a baby bump–I feel like a lot of people don’t know what to do with me. People will, not infrequently, look at us and just stare for a while, before snapping out of their momentary stupor and moving on with their shopping or walking or whatever. And people say things to me like “Wow! You’ve got quite the crew there!” And it isn’t like the way you’d say “Wow! You just knocked out that awesome research paper in one weekend!” It’s more like the way you’d say “Wow! You just ate an entire pizza in 8 minutes!”

So, after our trip to the grocery store today, I got to thinking about why people don’t seem to know what to do with me and the kids. Those who have actually articulated opinions on the subject seem to think that somebody so young is not truly prepared for the responsibility and work of appropriately raising three children. Therefore–this is my assumption based on a few statements–it seems irresponsible for someone so young to choose to have said children, or rather choose not to prevent their births in one way or another.  But I thought of that principle–a very young person taking on large amounts of important work and responsibility–and applied it to another situation.

If I were to mention to somebody that I was currently working on my third graduate degree from Princeton University–this while I appear to be a teenager–I feel like the response would be very different.  I think they still might not know quite what to do with me, but it would be out of awe and respect rather than condescension and concern. Why is that? Graduate degrees from highly respected universities are a huge amount of work, and a big responsibility. Why could a 25 year old who looks like a 19 year old be able to do those things and be considered not just in her right mind, but apparently prodigious for doing it, while said 25 year old who has three Oxford quality children–or any other person who has more children than is expected–must be irresponsible?

I don’t really have the answer–though I’m quite certain that Satan is somewhere within it–but, in any case, I’ve decided to change the way I think about things just a little.

 

I would like to consider myself a prodigious mother. After all, not just anyone could handle three kids under the age of 5 at the age of 25 (as is evidenced by the great minority of people fitting that description)! And not just anyone can do it full time, day in, day out and not only remain sane, but even enjoy it most of the time! So anyone who does do those things, or similar things,· is prodigious in my book.

I’ll admit that somedays I’m more prodigious than others. Somedays I very greatly resemble that 19 year old people believe me to be in my whining and frustration. But other days, I even impress myself with just how well I manage things and even love them!

So here’s to all the prodigious mothers in the world! We are all raising Stanford, Harvard, Oxford quality children (because Heavenly Father doesn’t make anything less)! And even if nobody else knows what to do with us, we know we “are laying the foundation of a great work” that is far more important than all the graduate degrees the world could ever offer us!