First off, I wanted to say that I am sincerely sorry that I offended people in my blog. I veered off of the intended subject and as a result, the overall blog was unfocused and confusing. My husband even said that I was not “even-handed” in the blog and I do agree. Hopefully this will help clear things up. I wish I could say that I was blogging under the influence of Ambien, but it’s just not true. I was not drugged or sleep-deprived when I wrote the blog, but in serious need of some editing skills. There are really two topics that I was trying to address in the blog: 1) having large families and 2) paying attention to your children. My biggest mistake was insinuating that there is a link between the two. First, I’ll talk about what I didn’t mean to say. I in no way meant this as a criticism of fertility treatments. I am fully supportive of whatever means people use to have children, whether it is medically, through adoption or surrogacy. Besides marrying my husband, having kids is the most wonderful thing that has ever happened to me. I wouldn’t want anyone to be denied this blessing. I’ve read my words in the blog over again and while I don’t mention anything about fertility treatments, I can see that my vague or harsh language may have led readers to conclude that I was judging Kate Gosselin for doing IUI. This is most definitely not the case. Second, I was remiss in assuming that I know what really goes on in Kate Gosselin’s life. I know that the gossip magazines are often vicious and focused on printing what is going to sell copies. Ironically, as a recipient of some of the strong comments in response to my blog, I got an idea of what it’s like to be judged perhaps unfairly. Although it stung to be criticized this way, I do know that I made mistakes and that’s why I’m writing this response. Third, having large families does not necessarily equate to children being ignored or neglected. I was emotionally neglected as a youngster, but I only have one sibling. On the other hand, you have families like the Duggars who seem very functional and by all accounts, the love in the family seems to grow as they add more children. I still stand by my assessment of the Octo-Mom, but she is obviously a special kind of unbalanced and should not even have a place in a rational conversation on family planning. I also did not mean to be critical of anyone who gets pregnant by accident. As John Lennon said, “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.” These babies are every bit as appreciated as ones who were planned. I am so sorry if what I said in my blog was construed in any other way. What I did mean to say was one, the decision of whether or not to expand your family is one that ideally warrants serious thought. Two, our children should be our priorities. I feel strongly about these issues, but somehow my intended message went off track and ended up sounding preachy and pedantic. On a closing note, I wanted to say that I appreciate your feedback. This whole thing was a learning experience for me. If I am going to address serious and sensitive issues, I better make sure that the premise is well thought-out and the supporting arguments concise and logical.

Tess,thank you for your thoughtful and well-researched response. You have very good points and I very much appreciate the feedback.

I laughed just as much as I did the first time! This is absolutely hilarious!! Somehow the accent makes it even funnier ... it's almost like his voice has a built-in wink in it. (For those of you who are offended, note that one of the categories is "humor." It's a JOKE!!)

You've inspired me to DVR "Food Revolution." I "think" we eat fairly healthy, but maybe the show will tell me otherwise.

This IS inspiring!! Someone once told me that mothers of multiples complain LESS than singleton mommies and Julie is testimony to that. I'm sure this often has to do with how hard it was to have babies and how grateful you are. Now this is the kind of responsible parenting I admire! (This comment will make more sense when you read my soon-to-be-posted blog.) It's interesting that four of the five are boys. We have neighbors who had a singleton, then QUINTUPLETS!! The singleton is a girl and four out of the five quints are girls. These lone boys in a sea of women will make great husbands one day!! Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

LOVED the title of this! We've even had drivers in our neighborhood who ignore the cross-guards and plow on through. No bueno!! Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

This made me teary-eyed even though we are still a LONG way from this stage. My daughter is 5 and twin boys are 4. Thank you for sharing this! Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

Carrie, you are waaay to young to be a cougar!!

Angie, you hit the nail on the head! You're cracking me up!! Lisa

With a singleton, then twins, we went from zero to three kids in 19 months. I definitely know about the challenges of 3 kids, especially since we have almost NO spacing!! Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

Now someone has created a "rude jogger" website: http://rudejogger.com/Home_Page.html This "someone" obviously has a little too much time on their hands!

I have this problem too. It's a form of ADD, induced by having too many young children. We went from zero to 3 kids in 19 months (singleton & twins). They are very demanding, but the ADD has unfortunately bled into my "days off" too. Sigh ... Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

I too am just appalled at the demise of etiquette. It's just crazy! This happened to me yesterday. Someone RSVP'd for my twins' birthday party just two days prior, even though the invitation had a RSVP date listed of two WEEKS ago. I'm just hoping I have enough goody bags! Then there are several who never RSVP'd at all. It makes me wonder whether I should just do an Evite next time. Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

In our achievement-based world, it's tough when your job is to be a mom and our "successes" are often not who we are, but who we've raised. I think we all struggle with "what if's." I really liked your post and it got me thinking. I wrote a post in a similar vein, although in my typical crank-it-out fashion, it wasn't as in depth as yours: http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/02/back-in-the-saddle.html Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

Hello Katie, First, I wanted to say that I was excited to see you blogging on SV Moms! I'd heard vaguely about this kid, but didn't know who he was. Thanks for enlightening me about Biebermania. The teen idol of my day was Sean Cassidy. Time will tell if Justin ends up fading away as Mr. Cassidy did.

So I'm ashamed to say that I've taken "magical creatures" a step further by inventing more. I have concocted all these imaginary "bunnies" that monitor our three kids' behavior. Who needs "elf on the shelf" when you can have invisible bunnies such as "The Valentine Bunny" to make sure that your kids are adhering to the rules and thus ensuring copious amounts of candy and other "treats" on said holidays? It really seems to work and they buy it that only mommy and daddy can see these bunnies because they're really shy around kids. The bunnies talk directly to me and I translate to the kids. Oh gosh, I hope I'm not setting them for excess let-down when they find out ALL these characters are fictitious! Or that it's negligent to be assigning parenting duties to bunnies ... Lisa http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/ http://www.deepsouthmoms.com/lisag/

Oh, don't even get me started! The other day I said to my husband after he asked me to do yet another errand for him, "Must be nice to have a personal assistant." He countered, "Must be nice to have someone go to work and earn money for you." Ouch! He wouldn't last 5 seconds in my 24/7 job and he knows it! I'm following you on twitter. You can follow me at: lisamarieg66. I'm also a blogger on Deep South Moms (Lisa G). Anyway, LOVED this post of yours!!

Good post! I completely agree. In fact, I wrote a similar blog a while back. Bring on Barbie! http://nicoledanelogan.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/08/barbie-fest.html

We have a whole slew of harmless fibs in our arsenal. I have concocted all these imaginary "bunnies" that monitor our three kids' behavior. Who needs "elf on the shelf" when you can have invisible bunnies such as "The Valentine Bunny" to make sure that your kids are adhering to the rules and thus ensuring copious amounts of candy and other "treats" on said holidays? It really seems to work and they buy it that only mommy and daddy can see these bunnies because they're really shy around kids. The bunnies talk directly to me and I translate to the kids. Oh gosh, I hope I'm not setting them for excess let-down when they find out ALL these characters are fictitious! Anyway, LOVED your post and your personal blog too!! Lisa (a former OC girl)

Oh yes Carrie, that is a different kind of "fun" altogether. We've definitely had our fair share of that! We have a frequent user card at the Westlake ER!!

This has happened to me too! Good to know I'm not alone. Yoga is amazing on so many levels.

Love it! We have a few drive-thru Starbucks in Austin, but none that are close enough to really benefit us. EVERY neighborhood inhabited by moms needs a drive-thru Starbucks! It should be a law!!!

Carrie, I saw your question about linking to you name. If you look at the end of the post after the "share this" part, there is a sentence in read that says "posted by Carrie Faith ..." in Carrie Faith. People can click on the underlined "Carrie Faith" and link to all your posts. Hope this helps!