I let my three oldest boys go off for a week of camp together. They deserved it, they work hard helping their dad on the farm, they help with household chores, and sometimes they baby sit. They definitely needed a break from the responsibility and chaos of home and have time just to be kids.

Nevertheless, it was a real hardship on me to have them gone for the week. I’d forgotten how difficult it could be to take a child to an appointment with five other children in tow. I will admit it; I have gotten a little lazy, leaving the other children at home with their big brothers, while I just take one or two with me at a time.

When I took the girls to their counseling sessions this week, with a fussy infant and a belligerent toddler in tow, it brought back memories from about 10 years ago. Lyn, our 13 year old daughter was three then, and she had 30 minutes of speech therapy, twice a week, at the rehabilitation hospital.

We had just started homeschooling our children that year, so during the day we had all eight of our children at home. While two of our children were 14 and were old enough to babysit, the behaviors of our newly placed children made that, not an option. Which meant everyone went up to rehab twice a week with their schoolwork in their backpacks.

Usually there weren’t enough chairs in the waiting room for all of us, so they would line up along one wall in the hallway. Then they would take out their books and do their school work while she had her speech therapy.

Sometimes we would pack a lunch and go to the park to play afterwards, making it more of a fun outing. If we needed to incorporate a field trip into our day of school, then we tried to plan it for after speech as well.

I don’t remember much complaining back then by my children, about having to drive around half the day for speech or counseling or to see some other specialist. However, I heard plenty of it last week. Apparently, the children have gotten used to not being dragged around, and then forced to sit in waiting rooms here and there, for an hour at a time, too.

I guess I’m not the only one that has gotten used to me going off to appointments with just one or two of the children. When I picked up my boys from camp, I remembered to tell them how much I appreciate their help and how much we all missed them.

Photo credit
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