Three kids are the most stressful number, says a survey by the Today Show.

I have three kids. I win the mommy stress competition! Phew, I knew that something good would finally come out of my multiple progeny.

According to the 7,000 women surveyed, moms of three kids have more stress than mothers with less kids, and even more stress than mothers who have four or more. The Today Show called it the "Duggar Effect". As if 19 kids are less stressful than my three.

Elizabeth Banks, star of the The Hunger Games and What to Expect When You Are Expecting, upset single moms when she said that after she had her second child, she felt like a "real mom".

Was she saying that mothers of singletons aren't "real moms?"

Now that the gifts have been doled out, the Christmas movies have been watched and the fatigue has set in: It's time for the fighting!

Let's be honest; the few days after the holidays can be tough and loud. Kids start to gaze over at their siblings toys and start to wander who got the better deal. And then the yelling begins. Which begets more yelling from you, as you start to hate yourself for raising such ungrateful children. So how do you handle the hotbed of sibling rivalry?

You know when your kids are fighting about something trivial and they are both at fault; neither of them are listening to each other, they're kicking and punching and maybe even head butting. Perhaps they are fighting over who gets to cuddle with the dog, but the dog ends up getting a little beat up in all of the fracas.

You have two choices: sit between them and negotiate, or send them to their rooms. But for negotiating to work, there has to be some buy-in. So you have a choice: send them for time-outs, or give yourself one and hope that they learn to co-exist.

Welcome to Ontario's educational system. We have two sides unwilling to negotiate with each other and our kids are the ones suffering.

As a parent, you see birth order from both sides --the way you experienced it, and the way you see it reflected in your own kids. 

First borns are responsible, middles have a chip on their shoulder and the babies are irresponsible -- you have probably heard it all before. But do you believe it?

Which relationship is the longest, most difficult and most rewarding in your life?

Not your pet, your kids or your spouse. Your siblings are the ones who travel from childhood to (hopefully) old age alongside you. Sometimes they create problems for you, sometimes they can smooth them over. 

My own relationship with my sister was difficult for much of our school years, though now we are close. But if you had told me on the day that I fished my favourite lipstick out of the pocket of my favourite suede jacket that was stuffed in the back of her closet for weeks that I would call her most mornings one day, I would tell you that you were crazy.

I really hate how muchI have become a broken record, I say things without thinking and as soon as it is out of my mouth, I am tired of hearing it too.

We all do it. We repeat the same phrase over and over, and for some reason we expect the kids to respond. But they don't hear us - they hear the teacher's voice from Charlie Brown instead. Even I hear it when I'm talking sometimes.

I have three children - three different, amazing, lovable children. And they deserve to be loved equally. But this article in Time tells me that is an impossible goal. All parents have favourites - whether they express it or even know it.

Six months ago, I did a post about a mom blogger who wrote about favouring her younger child. It wasn't just about favouring her younger child, she didn't much like her eldest kid. The post elicited a lot of comments from people who grew up with favouritism themselves; those stories were so full of anguish and sadness. I think anyone reading them swore to do better.

My post-partum doula told me that the world needs more middle children because they are great negotiators, mediators and make the world a better place.

Pretty astute words from someone who couldn't figure out my laundry machine. Writers Catherine Salmon and Katrin Schumann echo her theory with their new book: The Secret Power of Middle Children where they suggest that middle children are more successful later in life because of their skills learned as the overlooked middle.

I have to admit that when I heard that Julie Cole had six kids, I couldn't believe it. Not only is she co-founder of the wildly successful Mabel's Labels but six kids? Who in their right mind would choose to have six kids I wondered. And just like everyone else she knows, I asked her. Her answer made sense (for her, not so much for me) and so I asked her to write it all down.

Six Reasons to Have Six Kids
When people hear that I have six kids, the reaction is usually entertaining. Sure there are some days when I wonder what I’ve got myself into, worry about the world they’ll inherit and consider the environmental footprint of a family like mine. But most of the time I just celebrate how awesome it is to have six kids. Here are a few reasons why!