“Dotty, your phone is ringing!” Easton called out from his spot at the kitchen island.

I looked up from the sticky pizza dough I was kneading to see my lit-up phone vibrating on the counter in front of my younger brother.

Ace and I were babysitting my siblings so my parents could go out on a date. He was playing some video game upstairs with four of my brothers, while Easton, Felix, Wes, and I got dinner ready.

We were having homemade pizzas. Easton and Griffin chopped up ingredients—

with child-safe knives of course—while I prepared the dough.

Wes was hanging out in his playpen nearby, eating Cheerios out of...