The Price of Clothes

This weekend, the Wall Street Journal had an article about large families that I found interesting. It talked about the fact that having a large family with good parenting "is easier than people think." Some of the points they made were based on comparisons/studies of twins raised apart and then adopted children in a family. They said that basically, there were several things that parents do (or don't do for that matter), that in the big picture, don't really matter. Point: basically made it look like a lot of worrying that parents do or ways that parents try to prepare their children for life don't really matter. Now it's not that anyone is saying good parenting isn't necessary or anything, but in their comparisons, they kind of said that to a great extent, some things parents do simply don't make a difference. For example, in identical twins raised in separate families (and thus a somewhat different environment), that they grew up to be basically equivalent in intelligence, happiness, etc. Anyway, if the article is of interest, I'm sure it can be located. My main point with this is the comment Leyton made to me when he knew I was reading it.

Leyton said, "Mom, I know that having a lot of kids can be expensive." I asked him what made him say something like that. He said that it was because clothes can cost a lot for a lot of people. Wow. Not sure where that came from. But, I did take advantage of the moment to let him know how special he and his siblings are to us. I simply reminded him that no matter what, we are so happy to have our family and we would much rather have them (and the need to buy clothes for our kids) than not have them around. I told him that, yes, most things do cost money, but that we can do our best to use our resources wisely, provide for our family, share things, etc., but again, that every dollar spent couldn't compare to the amount of joy we feel from having all of them. He gave a big smile and we shared a good hug. Such a great kid...along with our four others.