1. Your refrigerator isn’t big enough to store a week’s worth of groceries.
In particular, you definitely do not have enough room in the produce drawers.
2. No stores have shopping carts big enough to hold all your children and all your groceries, too.
So you become a “two-cart family” and put kids in one and groceries in the other, but sometimes you worry that the store manager might revoke the license of the second cart-driver, who is seven years old and can barely see over the handle.
3. Toothbrush holders that hold more than five are rare.
Our kids are young enough right now that we still supervise their teeth-brushing, so all of our toothbrushes are in the same bathroom. Yeah. Try finding a toothbrush holder that holds more than four or five toothbrushes. (We are currently using a short, oval vase from Hobby Lobby in lieu of a real toothbrush holder.)
4. Cars that seat seven passengers don’t allow for five of those passengers to be carseats.
The minivan may be the quintessential mom-mobile, but just because it seats seven doesn’t mean you can have five kids in it. Fitting five carseats in a minivan requires hours of research and testing to figure out the right combination that will allow you to fit three seats across the back and two in the middle.
5. You can’t find a highchair for every highchair-sized kid at most restaurants.
And if you can, there’s rarely room to put more than one at a table.
6. Your dishwasher won’t hold one meal’s worth of dishes.
We are only beginning to happen upon this problem on occasion, but I forsee it becoming a regular occurence in the future.
7. You must run four pancake griddles simultaneously to get everyone fed in less than two hours.
If we ever do a total kitchen renovation, I’m figuring out a way to put a restaurant-style grill/cooktop in.
8. A standard-sized kitchen table is more than cramped.
When child #5 started sitting at the table recently, we realized that we are soon going to have to either get a bigger table or find more narrow chairs so that we can fit three on one side. And while I eschew the idea of a formal dining room, I can see that someday we are probably going to want one just for the size! (Maybe then I can turn the eat-in kitchen into a commercial grill and dish pit.)
