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Hey, hey, welcome back to We Are the Hansons.
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I'm your host, Maya Hansen and probably right now the
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only one in the house not asking for snap. Thanks
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for tuning in to another episode where we talk about
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all things family, chaos, love.
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And the beauty in the madness. Today it's just me,
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and honestly, it feels like luxury because in my world
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solo anything is rare. I can't even go to the
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bathroom alone without someone flipping a note under the door
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or yelling mom like it's an emergency boiler ert. It's
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usually not. But today I wanted to share something a
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little more personal, something I think gets blossed over on
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social media or even avoided in polite conversation. And this
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is the real, raw truth about raising a big family,
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Not the Pinterest version, not the Instagram reel with everyone
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in matching pajamas and smiles, but the heart of it,
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the hard, the hilarious, the humbling part, the stuff no
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one tells you. Let's start with obvious noise. People always ask,
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how do you deal with all that noise? The truth is,
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I don't I adjust to it. You kind of hearing
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some things unless someone screams in the real way, the
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kind that makes your muscle and your body go cold.
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That's when you run. But the everyday background hum of yelling, giggling,
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door slamming, someone beatboxing in the hallway while brushing their teeth,
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that just becomes part of your brain's soundtrack. Silence is
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suspicious in this house. If it's quiet, something's broken or
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about to be. Here's something they don't tell you about
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big families. Your life becomes logistics. You are basically a
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small company. We have strategies for bedtime, shower rotation, school lunches,
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car pooling. It's all organized chaos, guys, and sometimes the
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system breaks. Someone can't find their left shoe. That happens
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a lot, and suddenly we're thirty minutes late for where
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we need to be, and I'm wondering why I thought
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it was a good idea to wear a maskcarro But
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the wild thing is, even in those moments, there's laughter.
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There's always a kid cracking a joke, or a little
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one making noise, tapping their legs, whatever it may be.
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I remember, this is a life that we built. It's
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messy and it's magic. Another truth, the mom guilt, it's
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real and it's sneaky. You'll ask yourself if each kid
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is getting enough attention. You'll feel bad when you forget
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spirit weak costume, or you miss a moment because you're
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busy doing something while helping another child with homework. But
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here's what I've learned. They don't need perfect, They need present.
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They need to see you trying, and they need to
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feel safe and loved and seen. And sometimes that looks
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like late night talks while folding laundry or eating frozen
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waffles at midnight after a long day because dinner can
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be chaotic at our house. Real love lives in those
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little cracks. There are these moments that hit me out
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of nowhere, watching the older ones help the younger ones
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tie the their shoes, or hearing them defend each other
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at school, or walking in to see them all piled
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on the couch like puppies watching a movie. No one
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told me how much they would teach each other and me.
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They teach me patience when I have none. They remind
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me what really matters. They humble me because nothing will
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remind you you're not cool faster than your teenager rolling
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their eyes at your dance moves in the kitchen. But
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they also give me purpose, deep soil filling purpose. If
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you're listening and you're in the middle of it, whether
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you've got two kids or twelve kids, hear me when
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I say this. You're doing better than you think, not
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failing because today was messy. You're not behind because the
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laundry mountain looks like everest. You are raising humans and
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that's holy work, that's legacy stuff. I look at everything
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we do throughout the day. Nothing about it is easy,
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whether it be cooking dinner for all of the kids
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and then their friends, because you know, every weekend is
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a friend weekend at our house. You're putting plate after
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plate after plate out for these children, and by the
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time you get to the second child, the first one
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wants more. It's not easy. Bedtimes are chaotic. Getting each
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kid in the shower before bed is like a circus. Here,
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it literally is like a circus most of the time.
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When I enter the bathroom, after I get one kid
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out of the bath, I look around and I'm like, Wow,
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this is a mess. Then the other one's taking a
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bath getting all washed up, and I walk in and
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I'm standing in a pool of water. How do kids
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make such a mess? On the floor in a bathroom
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with water. I can tell you they play and water
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splashes everywhere, and it just keeps splashing and keeps splashing.
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They are making memories regardless of the mess they make.
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They're making memories and they're going to remember taking a
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bath with their barbies or their dolls. That's just life.
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Kids will do fun things that entertain them. The other
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thing is when all their friends come over. This past
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weekend was a perfect example of what a crazy house
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looks like. At our house, all of our girls as
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friends decided they wanted to have a slumber party at
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our house. I said, okay. Needless to say, my two girls,
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Anna and Torren fell asleep before everybody else and woke
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up with a colored face. The girls used washball marker
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and drew all over them. That's what happens in our house.
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And I'm going to tell you kids will remember that
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for a long time. And I'm sure when they have kids,
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their kids are going to do the same thing. The
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fun and games. Maybe chaos, but I look at it
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as a memory making experience. Them kids will never forget that.
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You know, a lot of people say, oh, you shouldn't
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let them play with this or you shouldn't let them
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mess up that. Well, it might be a mess, but
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the memory is made. Our house is chaotic. It is
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so chaotic. But regardless of the chaos, it's fun and
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we're making memories. Some people think we're crazy, and that's
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all right. Will be crazy as long as it's fun.
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Don't care. We play ghosts in the graveyard, we play bemozled,
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we make fun happen. We will come up with a
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game in our house just to make them memories. And
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the truth is it's a crazy house. I mean, our
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house is crazy. Nothing about having a big family with
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a lot of kids is easy. Every kid has went
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through that stage of wanting friends over, or having to
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be taken to work, or one kid's got to be
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here at this time and the other kid's got to
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be here at that time. We went through a phase
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where I guess it wasn't even a phase. It was
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a situation where we had two boys in wrestling Morgan
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and basketball, and then we had some in football and
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we had some in cheerleading. That at our house is
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one parent takes the kid to wrestling, one parent takes
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the other kid to basketball. If it was on the
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same day. If it wasn't and we could go together,
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we'd go to that first and then to the other
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one if we had to. You know, it just depended
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on the day and if they were on the same
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time or not. If it wasn't on the same time,
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both got to see. But we were always sending each
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other videos of our children doing their sport because one
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of us was missing it. It gets chaotic, and the
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big family life is the best life to have. I feel.
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Each kid has their own ideas and personalities and what
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they think is fun. But I can tell you loading
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all the kids up and going to the lake for
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a day of swimming and fishing is some of the
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best memories we have together. Granted it is chaos getting
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into the car and getting everybody in and making sure
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we have everything. When we get there, we forget about
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the trouble we had getting everybody loaded up and everything packed,
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so we didn't forget anything because we're there, we're making memories.
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We could care less about the chaos because at the
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end of the day, we had the best time we
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could have. So life with a big family is absolutely
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the best. Don't let those perfect mom posts fool you.
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No one posts the meltdown in the grocery store or
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the time you cried in the pantry, But we've all
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been there and you are definitely not alone. As a parent,
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I have had some of the worst luck sometimes and
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I've felt bad, but I sit there and think I
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would never ever change a thing because my kids and
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my family and the big family that we are, I
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wouldn't give it up for the world. So yeah, raising
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a big family. It's not for the feint of heart.
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It's loud, and it's overwhelming and completely exhausting, but it's
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also the most joy filled, laughter soaked, deeply connected life
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I could have ever dreamed of, and I wouldn't trade
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it for anything. Thanks for listening to my episode of
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We Are the Hansens. If you made it this far,
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you're probably one of the real ones and I appreciate you.
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Don't forget to go over and subscribe to our YouTube channel,
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or you can send me a Facebook message if you
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have any questions on our We Are the Hanson's Facebook page,
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or send us an email at We Are thee Hanson's
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Show at gmail dot com. This is We Are the Hansens,
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where the house is always loud, the love is always real,
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and the stories never stop. Catch you next time.