Happy Fight Day...I Mean Family Day

Today is Family Day and I was thinking about writing about one of our many stories as a family but we try to be real about our lives and I think it is fitting to share a bit of reality.  The reality is social media tends to be that everyone's life seems perfect or an absolute mess.  We try to simply share the truth and let you see the perfect and the mess.  I used to be a pastor and one of the most common things people believed was that they were the only one dealing with a certain issue.  I think we believe that as families as well, convincing ourselves nobody else has to do deal with the same shit.    

Figuring out what to watch in our house as a family tends to be a bit of a nightmare.  The reason is there is eight of us currently living here and everyone has their opinions.  "I don't like that genre", "I can't stand that actor", "I already saw that", "I'm supposed to see that with my friend", "That looks boring", "That looks too intense" and so on.  I am guessing some of you with much smaller families deal with the same dilemma.  

How about meal times and basically the same arguments "We just ate that", "I'm tired of that", "That looks gross", "I already ate" and other complaints.  In our house we do the one meal for all and if you don't like it make yourself something to eat and clean up the mess.  I thankfully don't have super picky eaters but there are certainly times we all have different meals sitting around the table.

Deciding where to go as a family is another enjoyable endeavour in the parenting world.  Ever ask your kids what they want to do today?  I think everyone wanting to do the exact same thing are like shooting stars, they are like little beautiful little miracles that you enjoy for the briefest of moments they last.  That's why we often try and think of something or somewhere great they will all be excited about instead of asking them what they want to do.  Let's be honest though most the time the answer to what do you want to do or where do you want to go is not always agreed upon as partners.    

I have heard people say "Siblings fight, it's what they do" but that doesn't make it any easier listening and dealing with it.  This happen to anyone else?  Your fights with your kids end up being the result of trying to stop sibling fights?  So instead of two people fighting it ends up being three people fighting. Oh wait, your spouse has an opinion about the fight that is different than yours and suddenly the three becomes four.  Thankfully not very often but once in awhile our family squabbles remind of the old WWF cage matches where there were no rules and it was every man for himself.  Just like those matches though, in the end we all survive.   

So today on Family Day, whether you have a fantastic day or it is filled with complaints and fights while all eating different meals you are a normal everyday average family.  Happy Family Day!