Emmeline was 25 when she gave birth to her first child. 11 years later, she gave birth to the last of “her clan”, the sixth child of the siblings. Budget, organization, sleep… She tells how she manages her life as a mother of a large family.
Emmeline had her first child at the age of 25, a little girl named Sarah, then separated from the father before meeting Romuald, her husband, with whom she had 5 other children: Léanne, Marie, Gaspard, Arthur and Gabriel. “I have experienced magical pregnancies, without any problems, I love being pregnant, it’s second nature to me, but I didn’t sleep for ten years. I was either pregnant or breastfeeding. And I loved breastfeeding at night, it was the only time I had time to be alone with my babies,” confides the mother, who also worked as a nurse (full-time for her first two children, then part-time for the rest of the siblings). “The children went to the nursery at my clinic, I could even breastfeed them during the day, it was perfect. It seemed so easy to me that I could have continued. But at some point, I had to be realistic. And financially, it would have been complicated.”
Indeed, Having six children has a cost : “I would say that we spend around 250 euros on groceries per week, and then you also have to be equipped with a car big enough to accommodate everyone.” Having six children also means doing a 10-kilo machine 4 to 5 times a week. “I have completely given up my obsession with ironing! My life is a waltz between everyone’s schedules. At home, we have a calendar that all the children fill in in turn. Classes, music in the evening after school, sports. Everyone has their own activity. At the start of the school year, Every September, there’s a rush to organize all of this: to make sure that the activities don’t overlap, that I can go back and forth. It’s a real tidal wave, every October I say to myself: Phew, I survived!”
“Being the mother of a large family also means juggling in all directions. And the part I like the least is complaining. Yet, I spend my life telling them to hurry up. Sometimes I crack, especially when they argue with each other. My youngest daughter and my first son can’t stand breathing the same air, for example. So, we have to put strategies in place, make a seating plan, seat them as far apart as possible in the car.
We may regret one thing: we didn’t make sure they looked after each other. We always said to ourselves that we didn’t want to impose our choice of a large family on them. The eldest was never in charge of looking after them, for example. It was important to us… We didn’t want to delegate, but we went a bit too far. That said, they help us around the house. Setting the table, clearing away, emptying the dishwasher, taking out the trash: that’s what children do.
At 40, I had already had my six children and suddenly, this need for change. So, I suggested to my husband that we all go and live in my home country, Australia. For him, it was out of the question, but we still ended up moving to Rouen, with a fairly large plot of land of 300 m² after work, and finally having eight bedrooms!
At the same time, since I never do things by halves, I quit my job and decided to retrain. There, everyone around me thought I was crazy: mother of 6 children, in the middle of moving with a house to extend, and you resign? I wasn’t really worried. I have faith in life. I went back to college and passed the CAPES, I became an English teacher and the work continues to progress.