We have two dining rooms. On any given day we can accommodate 15 people for dinner without rearranging a chair. It’s easy to forget when all our neighbors have houses just like ours and I’m not trying to be boastful but I guess objectively it’s a decently big place.

Guys, it doesn’t matter. If your house is small and crowded, whether by choice or by circumstance, your kids don’t care. If your house is huge, your kids don’t care. Our kids want us. The size of our homes is one of the least interesting things about us as parents, as families.

I snapped this picture tonight during dinner. No makeup, babies in diapers, because I always want to remember this. It won’t always be this way. One day Shep won’t cry if Mama isn’t holding him, and Henry won’t get jealous and wiggle his way in between all of us. One day we’ll downsize, and instead of our big house feeling small because somehow tiny humans make large messes we’ll live in a smaller house that feels huge, because nobody is arguing over whose lap to sit in during dinner.

The kids will remember sitting down as a family to eat, not whether I cooked from scratch or out of a box. They’ll remember us asking about their day, even if we were there for the whole thing. Wherever we are, we’re just together, and they just want us.

I’m not unaware that this is easier to say when things are going well. I’ve lived in big houses and many years in small houses. I can tell you my memory as a kid in the small places are equally sweet because I was equally loved. So wherever you are, wherever your family is, just be together