I don't know..this sure makes it sound like maybe the mother does more than appears.
*****
It was 1:00 AM in the morning as I stood folding laundry with tears streaming down my cheeks. Feelings of being overwhelmed flooded my mind. I cried aloud, LORD I NEED YOUR HELP, I cant do it all! I feel so inadequate! Diapers, dishes, laundry, meals, cleanup, school lessons, baths, hugs, kisses, correction
My list seemed to go on and on. Then it was as if a still small voice said, Michelle, its easy to praise ME when things are going good, but are you willing to praise ME now? Immediately the scripture that says, Offer up a sacrifice of praise, came to mind. I said, OK Lord, I will praise you even now! It really is a sacrifice! So through the tears I began to sing, The joy of the Lord is my strength. In my heart there was a release as if a burden had been lifted. I finished the laundry at 2 AM and went to bed. Days later, I was at our piano teachers home (at 7 AM) trying to catch up on paperwork while the children were taking their lessons. Instead, I kept drifting off to sleep! The teacher noticed and asked, Are you OK? I replied, Im fine, Im just tired. I was up late finishing laundry. As we talked more she said that she actually enjoyed doing laundry and that she would be glad to come and help me! That weekend when she arrived we had mountains of dirty laundry, and when she left we had nice, neat, orderly stacks of clean laundry! For 10 years now, our piano teacher, whom we consider a part of our family and loving call NaNa has faithfully come (now twice a week) to help us with laundry! GOD sent An angel in answer to my cry for help. He is faithful to hear the humble cries of his children. Humble thyself in the sight of the Lord and He will lift you up. God lifted my burden (literally mountains of laundry!) and freed me to meet the more urgent needs of my family. Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory
Remember mothers, where God guides He provides!
****
I just think it's hard to
know what
really goes on from a one hour TV show.
People will draw their own conclusions of this family, and then try to pick out the things that support their opinion.
If you had someone watching a one hour special on the day to days with your family, how many of us would have people picking out things that make us weird or unusual.
And while I didn't remember the hug vs. no hugs thing, I remember thinking how nice it was at the end of the show when the mom was laying in the bed with all the girls piled on top of her reading them a story.
I mean some people are just affectionate in different ways.
And as for all the kids sharing a room, I can totally believe they wanted to do that.
I have an aunt and uncle that have 5 kids of various ages, they all have their own rooms, but most nights all wind up together.
We always joke about them being like a litter of puppies!
That's just them, and what makes them happy. The older ones LOVE to tend to the younger ones. And no they have NOT been conditioned to think that way.