Sometimes siblinghood stinks

Sometimes it really stinks to be one of six kids. In the last twenty-four hours I've had two reminders of this.

This morning, our kindie called this morning from his teacher's phone.
"Mo-om. Could you bring me my backpack?"
"I'll bring it when I pick you up. We can take a couple minutes to load it then."
"But mo-om."
"I'm sorry honey, but it's cold. It's raining....and Princess P isn't even up yet."
No way I was waking up a sleeping two year old over a backpack. Mean mommy? Depends on who you are. I'm pretty sure all three of the younger kids were happier this way.

I can hear his teacher in the background. "Did she talk to ya?"
"Yes. She said no." The disappointment in his voice almost made me cry.
"Well, that's okay. Say goodbye" his teacher chirps.
"Good-bye." Click. Pangs of mommy guilt, but I have to do what's best for the whole herd. More guilt....he's only in kindergarten. Well, he'll learn responsibility this way. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Then, with that sinking feeling I think back to last night.
"Mom, Abe won't let me borrow his DS for the slumber party. ALL three of the other boys going have one."
"I'm sorry honey, but I agree with your brother. Besides, I don't think a DS belongs at a slumber party anyway."
"I'm the only one that doesn't have one!"
"Well, you can earn yours in third grade by getting straight A's the 4th quarter just like your brother did." I'm saying this, but I'm wondering if he didn't have four younger siblings if things might be different.

Then again, he enjoys his four younger siblings immensely. Seeing him baby talk to Baby Guy, race remote control cars with Chip, and how gentle he is with his sisters is really worth more than any video game system in the world. He just doesn't realize it now.