The Accidental Expert
For some reason, a mother of three seems to be considered by many people as an expert in parenthood.  I am suddenly being asked by many people- friends, colleagues, complete strangers- how one "does it".  This is NOT an exaggeration. 
Store cashiers have asked me for labor advice, how to lose baby weight, and about strollers. At one store, the cashier really wanted to discuss her boyfriends ambivalent reaction to her pregnancy... and this was with a line of 5 people behind me.  
Colleagues want to know how to balance work and kids (My answer: there is no such thing as balance in your life.  And if there was, it is likely that you are not a well calibrated scale, anyway).   How to decide what is the best job for them? (Oddly, my answer is that the best job for them is actually up to them to determine, and has nothing to do with what anyone else thinks.  Given our professional obsession with what other people think, this is NOT the acceptable answer in academia.)
 But here is the question: Why does the third child, who is really just born and has not yet given me too much trouble, make me an expert?  I did not get all of these questions with two kids, and certainly not from strangers.  All that I have proven by, say, going to the grocery store with three kiddos in tow, is that I am both fertile and still capable of going out in public... is our bar for parenting so low that this counts as an accomplishment? 
At a conference last week I met a well known scholar who in a panel discussion mentioned the question of balancing work and family.  Her next comment was something about her eight kids.  I'm sorry, eight?  I think that the next time someone asks me for advice, I will refer them to her.