Since it’s time to get real, I figured I’d mention that the thought has crossed my mind, “Now why am I torturing myself again?” [If you’re new here, I’ve been vomiting for a long time now.] I had a phone call this weekend from a blog commenter—who can identify herself if she wants—who lamented that her wonderful, godly children misbehave while her pregnant-self moans on the couch.

Kids take advantage of the situation. And it makes one despair. At least, that’s what she said. I had no idea what she was talking about.

Now, if you don’t know, I have a one-year-old and a two-year-old, in addition to an odd assortment of others– none of which can babysit, operate heavy machinery, or iron clothes yet. Now, my two-year-old is a gem, God bless her. However, my one-year-old is—ahem—less sanctified, shall we say.

It makes me think we should spend more time talking with the old folks. See what I mean here:

The Old-Time Family
By Edgar Guest

It makes me smile to hear ‘em tell each other nowadays
The burdens they are bearing, with a child or two to raise.
Of course the cost of living has gone soaring to the sky
And our kids are wearing garments that my parents couldn’t buy.
Now my father wasn’t wealthy, but I never heard him squeal
Because eight of us were sitting at the table every meal.

People fancy they are martyrs if their children number three,
And four or five they reckon makes a large-sized family.
A dozen hungry youngsters at a table I have seen
And their daddy didn’t grumble when they licked the platter clean.
Oh, I wonder how these mothers and these fathers up-to-date
Would like the job of buying little shoes for seven or eight.

We were eight around the table in those happy days back them,
Eight that cleaned our plates of pot-pie and then passed them up again;
Eight that needed shoes and stockings, eight to wash and put to bed,
And with mighty little money in the purse, as I have said,
But with all the care we brought them, and through all the days of stress,
I never heard my father or my mother wish for less.

One of the reasons I lean toward the old paths is because the people were less distracted than we are. Their lives were simpler; they knew what was important and what wasn’t.