Complicated families

The past couple of weeks I have been consumed with extended family reactions to TTN (the triplet news).

My 18 year old son, mild and suave as always, had the funniest reaction. "But dad, this means you're going to have to get a minivan." I hadn't thought of that until he brought it up.
Universal reaction to the necessity of mini-vans: bummer! L suggested we can look into a GMC Suburban or a Chevy Tahoe. My next door neighbor James, father of three, pointed out that his Honda Pilot seats 8.
But everywhere I go, I see pudgy guys with wire-rimmed glasses flogging down the road in their Honda Odessey or their Toyota Sienna and I think - Therrrrre I go!

My 12 year old daughter's reaction was more openly pathological. She cried, pouted, went into a sullen state off and off for the next couple of days, and was generally obnoxical. But with lots of tender love and some clear limit-setting, she pulled out of it.

I have launched an offensive of closeness with my two kids, which coincides both with the news of new familiation and with the autumnal onset of school (they both are opposed, on principal and in practice, to the idea of public education). I've been on the phone with them every evening asking about their classes, their teachers, their friends, their projects, their new locker, their homework.

Their mother has been good enough to stay off the phone when I call.
But I hear that she and my ex-in-laws all reacted to the news in the most affirmative way possible, by assuring my children that the news of triplets only confirms that I have given up on them, am abandoning them for a new family, and the future will only be a long slide into obscurity until I reach the point where I don't remember their names.
Thanks! That was super helpful.