5 Years Apart

While it’s not every mom’s ideal plan, with many parents aiming to have kids a few years apart to set them up for BFF status, that wasn’t the case for this momma! Whatever your plan for growing your family, raising kids is never easy.

I'm not someone who had a master plan to have kids at a certain point in time — though to hear it from both people I know and random members of the general public, apparently that was something I forgot to check off my to-do list! I have a 6-year-old daughter and a 10-month-old son. That’s 5 years apart! I didn’t plan this, it's just how things happened. Many people seem to have a reaction to this. They either a) assume I had fertility issues (no, but that's none of their business anyway); b) feel bad that my kids are supposedly too far apart in age to play together or like each other; or c) ask if I have other children, assuming that there is some missing baby to make this age gap make sense.

To be fair, when you look at the statistics (I didn’t actually look at any statistics but it sounds right to say), my children's age spacing is not "the norm". This may be true, but I actually have enjoyed them being 5 years apart.

However, the 5-year age gap between my two kids really doesn't feel like that big of a deal. If anything, there are some major pros. Here are some of the best things about having a bigger than "normal" age gap between kids.

• I don't have two kids in diapers at once. One might argue that I just started over, but I appreciated the break, if you can call it that.

• My daughter is old enough to perform basic daily activities! She can bathe, dress and feed herself.

• Built in babysitter (sort of). My daughter is able to at least keep an eye on her brother for me and let me know if he's up to no good if I need to get the laundry, check work email, or even run to the bathroom without worrying about leaving him unattended. Having a little helper in the house is a huge perk

• I won't have to pay for two preschool tuitions at once!

This is what 5 years apart looks like for me!

~The Momager