The author says she's still paying her 28-year-old's phone bill.

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• I raised five kids and love each differently — I don't have a favorite.
• My youngest and I became especially close as the others moved out.
• He's 28 and married, but I still keep him on my phone plan.

I can honestly state that I have no favorite child.

I wouldn't say I love all five of them equally, because I don't think that's possible. I love each one for who they are. There are four boys and one girl.

I'm a big believer in the influence of birth order. And my kids are proof that the birth order stereotypes can be true.

I have a different relationship with each of my children

My oldest has definitely assumed the role of leader, especially after my kids' father moved out. When he was 2, a caregiver supervising the toddlers in my mother's group asked if he was an only child. Apparently, he wasn't good at sharing. He learned to share when, after two miscarriages, I gave birth to his brother. He became a doting sibling and, from that day forward, oversaw the well-being of all the children in the house.

Very soon after my 2nd son's birth, I became pregnant again, so this child was 2 when his brother was born. I felt guilty for diverting time from him to care for the newborn, but perhaps that's why he's always been my most self-sufficient, content to spend his time on solo adventures.

Personality-wise, my 3rd son is most like me. We tend to lead with our emotions. He's also the family connector, working hard to sustain all our relationships.

Adoption changed the family dynamic

My daughter joined us as a 6-month-old foster child. We'd been doing foster care for a few years with several children cycling in and out of our family before she arrived. I have to commend my boys for controlling the daily chaos of our expanded family. My oldest would organize games after dinner and keep everyone's excess energy in check. All three shared their rooms, their toys, and me without complaint, which was essential at the time.

It took over nine years to complete my daughter's adoption, but even before it was finalized, the boys seamlessly accepted her as a sister. When she was in kindergarten, she started begging for a baby. She wanted a sister to balance the household's male energy. I gave her another brother.

My oldest and my youngest share a birthday, 16 years apart

My youngest son was born on his oldest brother's 16th birthday. His other siblings were 13, 11, and 7 years old. This age gap meant that, for most of his life, my youngest lived as an only child.

I was probably at my most confident in raising him, having already ushered the others into adolescence and beyond. Most of his elementary school friends were first children with mothers who panicked about everything.

While his brothers and sister learned to drive, applied to college, and ultimately moved out to experience adulting, he and I built a partnership as our own mini unit within the bigger family.

I shifted from home-based work to an outside job when he was in 4th grade. It was at the new school that my daughter attended. When I added hours the next year, he joined me, skipping 5th grade and enrolling in 6th, so he did not have to attend an after-school program in our hometown, 45 minutes away.

Maybe I am most connected to my youngest

He was close to two years younger than most of his male classmates, which concerned me when it came time for high school. We switched schools for 8th grade so he could repeat without embarrassment, and then again for high school, before making a cross-country move together that reunited us with his older siblings, who had preceded us westward. Each time I worked at the school, he attended.

When this youngest son moved out for college, I found myself living alone for the first time in 34 years. He's 28 now and married, and the only one of my children who still lives nearby. I toy with the idea of moving closer to my other kids, especially my 2nd son, who's the father of my grandchildren, but I'm having a hard time detaching. Maybe it's because we experienced so many monumental moments together. Or maybe it's because he was the last of my children and kept me tethered to the role of mother for the longest time.

Is that why he's still on my cellphone plan? I'm not ready to kick him off. It's not that he can't afford the service. No, I continue to keep him on my plan because it's one way for me to maintain the role I cherish — mother.

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Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., accused Senate Democrats of not having "any excuses" to continue blocking Homeland Security funding as Republicans and the White House continue to make repeated offers to reopen the government.

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"The opportunity to actually drive this to a conclusion is there," Thune said at a press conference on Saturday in response to Fox News Digital. "You have to have, obviously, to negotiate a deal, you got to have two sides at the table. The White House is there, Senate Republicans are there. The question is, are Senate Democrats going to take yes for an answer?"

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) entered its 36th day of shutdown as Senate Democrats continue to block funding for the agency in their pursuit of reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

DHS SHUTDOWN TIED FOR SECOND-LONGEST EVER AS DEMS AGAIN BLOCK FUNDING AMID AIRPORT CHAOS, TERRORISM CONCERNS

After more than two weeks of negotiations appearing to have stalled, Democrats responded to the White House’s latest offer. That spurred two face-to-face meetings with Senate Republicans and Trump administration officials, including border czar Tom Homan, on Capitol Hill.

The latest meeting, which wrapped on Friday, saw Republicans offer Senate Democrats a compromise DHS funding bill.

Thune said the meeting went well and hoped the parties will meet again over the weekend. He characterized the GOP’s offer as filled "with a lot of reforms that have been requested and asked for by Democrats."

DEM SENATORS CALL TO FUND DHS AFTER VOTING TO BLOCK IT 4 TIMES AMID SHUTDOWN FIGHT

It comes as lines at airports snake for blocks, tens of thousands of federal workers go without pay, and concerns about increased threats in the U.S. as the Pentagon continues Operation Epic Fury against the Iranian regime.

Still, Thune and the GOP have grown increasingly frustrated with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Democrats’ unwillingness to engage in negotiations over the last several weeks.

"We have the Department of Homeland Security closed right now because apparently my Democratic colleagues are more afraid of ICE than they are of Iran and the challenges that we face now in the conflict internationally that we know that we have threats back in the homeland," Sen. James Lankford, R-Okla., said at Saturday's press conference.

DEMS UNMOVED AS WHITE HOUSE REVEALS DHS CONCESSIONS IN SHUTDOWN BATTLE

Republicans tried and failed for a fifth time to fully reopen the agency on Friday. In the background, there have been several attempts by Senate Democrats to move forward with standalone funding bills to open parts of DHS, excluding immigration enforcement.

The Senate will have a full vote on a standalone funding bill for the Transportation Security Administration, pushed by Schumer, later on Saturday. It will likely fail, given Republicans’ position that the department should be completely reopened.

"I know they think it's, as has been described by one of their leaders, ‘very serene, very serene’ with their position," Thune said. "Well, I'm telling you something, the people who are sitting in those lines at the airports right now don't see it as very serene. This needs to be resolved. We need a result."

In a Truth Social post later Saturday, President Donald Trump threatened to deploy ICE agents to U.S. airports if Democrats did not accept a deal. He said ICE would handle airport security and immediately arrest illegal immigrants coming into the U.S., with a special focus on Somalians. 

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