A post recently making the rounds on social media declared, with considerable confidence, that having nine children while running a business is irresponsible. The author, for her part, identifies as “pro-natalist, pro-kids, pro-family.” I read it with interest, because in addition to working as a legal analyst and running a small organization, I am also the mother of ten. By her accounting, I am apparently a cautionary tale.
Allow me to plead guilty. And offer some evidence.
On Adventure and Letting Go of Control
This past summer, I loaded the younger half of my children into the minivan for what I will generously describe as an ambitious itinerary: from the D.C. area to the Midwest to visit grandparents, then north to Niagara Falls, passing through Boston, then onward to Maine for the wedding of a dear friend’s daughter, and finally back to D.C. in time for the first day of school.
We made it. Barely.
Time with aging grandparents was precious. Niagara Falls received us with appropriate grandeur. Boston was engaging. The wedding was beautiful. And somewhere on our way back home from Maine, the fuel gauge staged a quiet protest. We coasted into the gas station on fumes and
