As if you needed one more reason to love your little one even more, here it is:

Little kids love to clean.

Not everything mind you, but they like to help. And if you’re cleaning, guess what? THEY LIKE TO HELP YOU.

This is one of those Great Parenting Secrets That No One Talks About For Fear It Will Disappear. My two year old (man, time flies!) will wipe up a spill like nobody’s business. Don’t hand her a paper towel and leave her to her own devices. She will walk around like a mini drill sargent, inspecting surfaces, just hoping that Mommy forgot to clean something so she can have at it.

Just try it, if you haven’t already. Hand your little one a towel or ask them to pick up their mess. The first time, get down there with them and show them how much fun cleaning up can be! (Only later will they learn that their mom is a big, fat liar.)

But perhaps you have one of the few who refuse to clean and refuse to help. I’m sorry. Truly, I am. You see, as soon as I discovered my daughter liked to clean, I popped out another one. Who needs housekeepers when you have kids?

I’m a young mom, and with 1.5 kids (soon to be two any day now), I think I’m done. No, not think, I know. I know I’m done having kids.

But everyone I know thinks I’m crazy for deciding this at 22. With two kids already, don’t I have a right to step back and say, “Okay, this is all I can handle?” Sure, I might change my mind later (highly, highly, highly doubt it), but at this point in my life, some certainty about my reproductive future is in order.

I can’t imagine myself with three kids, much less the 18 of the ever-growing Duggar family (pictured at left). And at 22, I think I’m old enough to make that decision for myself.

So what do you say? How many kids do you want? Can you see yourself pregnant at 30? 35? 40?