- My parents were childhood sweethearts and had four of their kids right away.
- Many years later, when my older sister was graduating college, my parents had two more kids.
My parents were high school sweethearts who married in 1956, after my dad's draft-required two-year Army stint and my mom's graduation from high school and business college. They did what most newly married couples did at the time and started a family.
In less than five years, the older four of us arrived, spanning a period from May 1958 to January 1963. Not surprisingly for the time or the childcare demands, my mom was a homemaker who spent very little time away from her crop of baby boomers for years. Our parents were overworked, but they were young and energetic. We didn't have much, but we also never went without anything we needed.
They had 2 more kids, in a different generation
The first Gen Xer arrived nearly 11 years after my younger sister. We boomers doted on her. Mom and Dad always had babysitters, shuttle drivers, and homework helpers. Unlike the rest of us, this one was being raised by a village.
My mom was nearly 44 and my dad was 47 when my baby brother made his appearance. My older sister was graduating from college, married, and had a 2-year-old daughter. My older brother had flown the nest to begin his career. I was a senior in high school, bound for college on scholarships and the $20 a month my parents mailed to me like clockwork. My other sisters were in 11th grade and first grade.
Their rules were relaxed with my younger siblings
I'm well aware that families like ours happen, but usually with a parental change somewhere in the mix. My parents had 33 consecutive years of first days of school. They had more disposable income to spend on the last two and relaxed a lot of rules imposed on their Boomer kids, like eating everything served and cleaning our plates. But sitting down as a family for dinner every night never changed, just the people around the table.
No matter how we scattered as adults, Thanksgivings, Christmases, Easters, and the summer family reunion were magnets that drew us back home. Differences between our generations blurred, then disappeared completely.
Our parents loved us all unconditionally
Both our parents died without warning — mom in 2013 and dad five years later. It was as the six of us kids gathered to grieve for Dad that I felt blessed that I had them both into my 50s. So many others don't get to spend that long with their parents, including, I realized with overwhelming sadness, the two youngest among us. No amount of material objects could make up for having so much less time with our parents.
There really is no contest here about who had it better among our generational luck of the draw because our parents were the common denominator. They sacrificed for us, loved us equally and unconditionally, encouraged us, and helped us in any way they could. Neither of them doted on any one of us, teaching us by example the same lesson about the value of family. We pay tribute to them as we kids continue gathering for holidays and reunions, chat in group texts, and post on our family Facebook page, ever-present for each other and never out of touch, just as our parents showed us.
Who had the best of them? All six of us received everything our mom and dad had for as long as they were here to give it. As far as this set of multigenerational siblings is concerned, that gift never gets old, no matter how old we get.