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Ideas We Love: The Week

August 15, 2017

Hello, Everyone, my name is Kaylee Rodrigues. I am 16 years old and I come from a large family of 12 children, counting me! I am going to tell you how my sweet mama makes each of us children feel special.

My mom came up with the idea of giving each of us children a whole week of special treatment starting with the oldest sibling, Nurie, who is 18, down to the second youngest who is 3 years old. This has been a great idea and all of us children greatly look forward to our week, which comes every 12 weeks. When it is your week you get to do everything special. So if it is my week and Mama and Daddy are going in a store (they don’t really want to bring all 12 children into the store just to get a few groceries), they just ask, “Whose week is it?” If it is my week, then I get to go into the store with them and I can pick out a special treat. Everyone is happy for the sibling who is having the special week, even when we watch them eating a candy bar in front of us, because we know our week is soon coming up and it is exciting to think about what we will get. Also, if it is my week and I need shoes or clothes, Mama makes a special trip with me to buy what I need. One time it was my week and Mama, Grandma, and Grandpa were taking a trip to New York to visit my Aunt Amy. All of us wanted to go but the car would not fit everyone, so Mama said, “Whose week is it?” It was MINE! I was so excited and had such a great time.

I hope you understand all that I have written and I hope it gave you some good ideas for how to make your children feel special.

My name is Nurie and I am 18 years old. I am the oldest of 12 children. So many times people ask me, “Is it hard to be the oldest?” Or “Do you not want a big family because you are part of one?” And sometimes they even ask, “Do you get all the work dumped on you?” Well, I have to say that is not the case with me. My parents try hard to make sure the work load is evenly split up between all of us. Mama is very organized and is always trying to make things as equitable as possible between her children.
One of the things I really enjoy is my special week. You might be thinking, “What in the world does that mean?” Well, when we were little, my parents were trying to think of an idea to make each of us feel special: “Who should we give this candy bar to? What child should we let stay up with us to have a bowl of ice cream and watch a movie? What child should we let go in the store with us? Who gets to sit in the front?” And the list goes on. After thinking about it for a while they finally found an answer. They decided to rotate giving each one of the children their own special week. This would be a whole week of very special treatment. So anything special that comes along that week would be given to the child whose week it was.

All of us children look forward to our week. We enjoy thinking of our week coming up. We love feeling special and love the extra bonding time we have with our parents during that week. It is fun being the one getting to choose first and have all the extra little things that come our way, and even go on a date with Mama and Daddy. I also enjoy watching the other siblings have their special week. My mama and daddy have done a great job making us feel loved and special. We all love them so much!

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2 comments on “Ideas We Love: The Week”

  1. Parents who opt to have smaller families do this, too! Only they don't rotate their children through "special weeks;" they take their kids to the store and spend quality time with them every day, every week! What a wonderful blessing for children to have love and special attention from their parents on a daily basis. Jesus is surely smiling down on them.

  2. This is a great idea! I'm one of 11. My dad would take one of us each saturday morning to the local market and we got to pick out a treat! But a whole week sounds even better. I only have two currently, but I'm gonna try it. This is a great idea for any size family. ?

    And it's sad to see Sarah so clueless about big families. Yes, we still spent quality time with our parents each and everyday! Our family had more love and deeper relationships than any of the other small families in our neighborhood. No wonder all the neighborhood kids loved hanging out at our house!!