Today marks the first day of my adventures in blogging. Let me first start with an introduction. My name is Mike Derrickson and I’ve been sober for…no wait, that’s the wrong introduction.
As I’m sure you can tell from the name of the blog, I’m a father of five. My wife, Becky, and I have five wonderful kids – two girls and three boys. They are Oriyah (10), Joey (9), Josh (7), Seth (4), and Ellie (21 months). It’s amazing as a large family with kids who are close in age some of the looks you get from people. When we go to the grocery store, I’m sure our van resembles a clown car. And as we’re shopping with two carts (it’s the only way to keep the peace), people watch in amazement as our family just keeps coming.
A few weeks ago while my wife was busy on a project from work, I ventured out with all five kids and headed to the grocery store. I had two kids in the cart, one riding on the front, and the two oldest hanging onto each side. I tried not laughing as I saw people’s faces. They were looking at us like a kid watches a parade coming. And the comments were hilarious! The men would say things like, “You’re brave, Dad” or “How do you do it?” or “You must be a patient man!” And the women all either said, “Good job, Dad” or “You must have owed your wife big time!”
I felt sort of like a pregnant lady – how everyone feels like it’s OK to touch their tummies because there is a human inside. It was like people felt like they had to comment because you don’t usually see a dad with a ton of kids making their way through the store. If my wife had been there with all five kids (which she does), people probably wouldn’t have said anything. But because I’m a dad who took all five kids to the grocery store – somehow I’m a “brave soul.”
Yes, I realize that my family is not within the societal norms of a typical family. According to this New York Times Interactive, 0.18% of families in the United States are like mine. Try it out…how many families are like yours?
Why do all my kids have the same haircut?
I think I’ll go ahead and conclude this post. As I’ve been writing this, I had one son run up and tell me his brother was scaring him and another trying to be a super-hero (I think) jump wildly from the hall to the entryway and hurt his knee. As a father of five, there’s always someone demanding my attention. I’m kind of like Batman – except without all the gadgets and money…and with kids as my villains. A hero never sleeps!
Until next time…
Daddy.of.5 