Not poor me

I felt compelled to blog about something that happened to my husband and me last weekend while we watched our son play baseball. We were packing up our five darlings when we were approached by a couple who were there to watch the next game.

The woman asked my husband if all five boys were ours. When my husband said proudly that they were, she followed up with the usual, "No girls?" My husband replied the usual, 'No, no girls." Then came the very comforting reply from the woman. "Poor you!"

I have to say that I was speechless. I was very angry at first, but then I realized that she was speaking from her opinion on how she would feel raising all boys. I am so thankful God did not give her the five boys! While I think everyone has a right to their opinion and may know their limitations, I am so thankful my boys were not around to hear the comments.

Society does enough to remind our boys of their limits, by comparisons in grades, their readiness to start school (don't get me started on that one!) This incident just reaffirmed my love and thankfulness for my boys. I could have responded with many different replies that may have led to an unplesant outcome. Instead, I just stared at my little one in the stroller, and told him how gorgeous he is.

Unfortunatley, not everyone reads this blog, and there will be more of these comments. I just hope for the people that happen to read this that they try to understand that it is perfectly OK to have an opinion and keep it to themselves.

You don't have to raise my five boys. Can you live without making those comments? How about, "Wow, they are so cute?" "They all look like their daddy!" "Wow, they all look alike!" My mother always taught me that if you don't have anything nice to say, say nothing. I find that to be great advice. While my husband and I are becoming immune to some of the comments, it still stings a little at first and I just feel it is completely unnecessary. I have to be fair and say that there are people we see at every baseball
and soccer game that give us nothing but sweet and complimentary comments. These people see us as a family and realize how much we love each other and what good people we are. The people with the negativity don't really know us, and we don't want to know them. I just want anyone out there with my similar situation to know that it is better to take the high road, and feel sorry for the people who probably aren't very happy people.