I am my own worst enemy. I know that I shouldn't read threads in local Facebook Groups, but then I click on them and get carried away. This rant comes from a post I read last night. It was along the lines of whether having more kids is easier. I know I shouldn't have commented but I did. And then I was bombarded with notifications from what must be superwomen who find it so easy looking after their 5 children. Well here is my take on it. Quite simply. No. I have certainly not found having 3 children easy. Yes I would say you are more relaxed with your second and third. But that is because you have to be. No single person can have the energy to discipline their 2nd and 3rd children as harshly as the poor first born. Here is why I find 3 children less than a breeze.

1. School finishes at the wrong time. Anyone that has a child at school and another one at home between the ages of 0-3 1/2 will know this. 3pm is nap time. It is not picking up your sibling from school time. Except it is. Cue lots of crying.

2. They rarely want to do the same clubs. If my children all wanted to do the same clubs that were on at the same time, then logistically this would be great. Will that ever happen? No. I tried with football. Then middle man "quitted football." Three children equates to more clubs than you would like to think and even more than you would like to pay for. Quite frankly it is a logistical nightmare.

3. You only have two hands. Correction. You only have one hand as one is tied up carrying all the crap that the kids wont carry. One hand is not good as it creates an argument from the two youngest who actually want to hold your hand. I say want, that is a lie. If you are alone with any of the children, they probably wont want to hold your hand. However, if it means that it shows some kind of one up manship on their brother they will wail on the floor until they get to hold your hand.

4. You will end up sounding like your Father. "Do you know how much that costs?" Yes that comes out of my mouth approximately 564 times a day. It starts with the breakfast cereal they have poured all over the floor and ends with the bedtime milk that usually gets chucked all over the floor. Three children are HUGELY expensive. Ice skating £50, cinema (not Kids AM) £35 day out at a theme park = remortgage the house. Don't even get me on the lack of hotel rooms and holiday options for families of 5 or more.

5. They create mess. This is one of my biggest bugbears and something I am trying to sort out, but I am outnumbered. Our house resembles Toys R Us at Christmas or Birthdays. They have so many toys. Do they play with them? Sometimes. Do they scatter them all over every possible space in our home? Regularly. The washing basket is always overflowing, as is the clothes to put away basket. Bless them every now and then they try to tidy, but this generally involves stuffing things randomly into their bookcase. Middle man has recently got into drawing. Fantastic he can use some of the arts and crafts supplies! I can tell you now that there is a large sense of guilt when a Mother recycles 25 newly drawn pictures. Thank God we have weekly collections. How anyone stays on top of the mess with more than 1 child is beyond me and I am not coping with my 3.

I think I had better stop my list there. I have quite a few friends expecting or just having had their third child. I don't want to scare them. Too much. And I wouldn't change mine for the world. But I do kind of understand the shock of my parents when I announced I was pregnant with little man. That both me and my husband were of sane mind at the thought of having three. Are 3 children a breeze? Not for me.*

*but I do love them dearly and only occasionally think of putting them on Gumtree. I would Ebay but the postage would be too much. (Just to clarify that is a joke. I think.)