Learning Curve

Over the past 11 plus years of parenting, I have found various ways to save myself time and trouble. I think this might be called "survival". Here's one snapshot of how my parental learning curve has progressed (for better or worse) as, one by one, each child has come into the family.

When we had 1 child:
CHILD: (5pm) "Can I have some candy?" Beg, beg...
ME: "No, you need to wait until after dinner. How about something healthy?"

With 2 children:
CHILDREN: (5pm) "Can we have some candy?" Beg, beg, beg, repeated 8 times (per child)...
ME: "Wait a second and I'll help you get ONE piece. Then you need to wait until after dinner."

With 3 children:
CHILDREN: (5pm) "Can we have some candy?" Pleeeeaaaase, beg, beg, beg, infinity (per child)...
ME: "You can have whatever you want if you can get it yourself."

See how we've progressed? You can imagine what great parents we'd be if we had SEVEN children.