My daughters are baby-sitting today. Of course, they’re watching the kids over here, where I’m available if they need something.

As my regular readers and close family and friends know, I love kids.  However, having a 2-year-old and an 8-month old who is crawling added to the mix is enough to make even the most child-loving person want to run immediately to the nearest birth control center and make permanent the inability to have more.

So far, I have bunkered in my office, informing the girls that I’m working and that I’ll help them if absolutely necessary, but they’re on their own. It’s good practice for them and I feel they need to earn their money honestly anyhow. I walked out once to have my nose assaulted by the smell of a wretchedly stinky diaper. Rachel, who has a cold and is in charge of the 2-year-old, couldn’t smell it; I couldn’t get away from the stench no matter where I went. I was, once again, reminded how nice it is to have children who are all in control of their own bathroom-related functions.

Logan has already been in a fight with the 2-year-old too, who didn’t understand that my boys were trying to build a fort out of blankets and ran underneath of them, knocking them all down. Younger children can bring out the worst in my youngest child, who resorts to meltdowns in order to express his frustration and anger.

The good news about this baby-sitting gig, for me, at least, is that I’m absolutely convinced that I don’t need any more children, no matter how often or hard baby fever seems to strike me. We’re in this whole new phase of life, where my kids are all in school full-time, no one wears diapers, I can go to the store by myself and shop in peace (that once seemed like a fantasy that would never actually play out), they don’t have to be monitored 24/7 and, maybe best of all, we can have really cool conversations. I rather like this stage.

Not to mention that it never hurts to give young girls a taste of what being a mother is really like.

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Tags: baby fever, baby-sitting, children, family, family size, family time, kids, parenting