Paralysis by Population

My big kids were invited to visit the local museums today with a couple of friends. They have two boys that are close in age, and that's it. No girls. No much younger siblings. Just the two. I'm a bit jealous of the decision making process at their house. If they want to do something, the just decide, and then go do it. Pretty much anything that is fun/interesting/appropriate for one is fun/interesting/appropriate for both of them. Totally jealous.

So many children. (One of them is not actually mine) 

I've got four. Two of each. Wildly varying interests. Wildly varying attention spans. Not wildly varying ages really, but the youngest is not too far removed from being a toddler and the oldest is trying awfully hard to be a pre-teen. We can't just go see a movie. It has to be not scary, but not too young, and interesting for a wide range of ages. They do make movies like that, but only a couple a year which makes spontaneous movie going pretty much impossible. Spontaneous anything is pretty much impossible. No matter what we think about doing, someone complains that they don't want to do that for some reason or another. With four, someone always wants to do something, and someone always doesn't want to do that exact same thing. Quite frankly, it's maddening, and that's why we seldom solicit our kids for advice on things to do. A lot of the time we end up doing nothing and just telling the kids that playing in the yard all day is good for them. Which it is, but there are other things that are probably just as good for them that we're not going to go do because we don't want to deal with the fighting and whining and accusations of favoritism. No matter what we do, somebody 'never' gets to do something they want to do. They 'always' have to do what other people want to do.
It's one of the tradeoffs of a big family. The kids really aren't bored very often because there is always someone to play (or fight) with if you're in the mood. The flip side of that is they pretty much have to play (or fight) with your siblings because figuring out where to take them, and then actually doing it, is so exhausting that it never happens.