https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/decobob/This blog explores the joy and hardships of coming from and having a large family. I want to start a dialogue on attitudes about family size and your own childhood experiences. I hope to write on birth order, childhood memories and perceptions among other things.hourly12000-01-01T12:00+00:00https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/decobob/151212Every parent needs a Seamus. For those unfamiliar with this Irish form of James it's pronounced Shay-mus. He's my oldest and everything a parent could wish for. Let me give you a little idea. Sometimes on weekends my husband and I sleep in. When we get up the house has been cleaned, coffee is...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/decobob/148838David is my second boy and the masculine version of me. It's so strange having a near mirror image of myself. It's not just looks. He has the same goofy, off-the-wall imagination. He loves regaling us with his dreams every morning. They have no beginning, no end, and would be considered too...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/decobob/148006Honesty is a virtue every decent parent would like to instill in their child. Some children are naturally honest, others not so much. The ones who like to challenge authority are often the ones with a slippery grasp of the truth. To these children, truth is always evolving, always changeable when...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/decobob/137008And a" Question Authority" bumper sticker on his arse. That's my fourth son, age 6. I used to think I was a good parent because my first 3 were so well behaved. Then came Liam. Some kids accept the fact parents are bigger and can tell them what to do. Not Liam. His daydreaming time is probably...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/decobob/135128The theory goes that, for those unfamiliar, certain personality traits are determined by where you fall in your family. I researched this a bit and found that the prevailing wisdom pretty much matches my experience with people. My husband has so many traits of the first born with two siblings. So...https://www.blogit.com/Blogs/Blog.aspx/decobob/133949Back in the day before car seats and seatbelt laws, my family packed into whatever car my father had running for family outings. By the time I came along no car would fit all nineteen of us so we took two cars. Even so, we were packed like sardines, a couple of layers deep, which wasn't bad in...