While most parents might struggle to get two or three kids ready for bed each night, this mum has to tackle eight, all wanting bedtime stories and cuddles. Chloe Dunstan, 27 and her husband Rohan from Perth, Australia, has shared a glimpse inside her busy night time routine which has her cook and eat dinner as early as 4:30pm. The busy parents quickly learned to adjust to life as a family of ten, and that meant being incredibly organised.
Chloe, who ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇᴅ all her kids naturally, details her very busy home life on her. The couple had three children by the time she turned 22 – Evan, 8, Otto, 7, and Felix, 6 – swiftly followed by triplets Rufus, Hank and Pearl, nearly 5. Two more babies will join Chloe’s family this November. All of her children were ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠᴇᴅ naturally. And while Chloe knows that with more babies comes more work, she said she and her family are ‘extremely excited’ to be growing their family even more.
She revealed that her night time prep starts at 4:30pm, when she’ll cook dinner for the entire family. During this time, the older kids often help tidy their play room, while the young tots have a nap. She said:” The babies have a nap in their rockers, while the others do some tidying up. At the same time, I’ll cook the dinner for the kids.”
On this occasion is was pasta, packed full of veg – which she says is a super quick and easy meal to prepare for the huge brood. Understandably, the quicker the better as she has very little time to spend cooking in the kitchen, but she still ensures the meals are nutritious as possible. By the time 6pm rolls around, the kids are sitting down to enjoy their dinner, with Chloe and her husband only sometimes joining them. On busier days, they don’t have dinner until all the kids are asleep, which is a few hours later.
Straight after dinner, the kids take turns having baths and popping on their pjs. All the while Chloe attempts to bath and feed the newborn twins – while still watching over the older lot. But there’s no time to sit and watch TV of an evening, as Chloe then has the kids brush their teeth and jump into bed to read a book.
Since being a parent, Chloe says she’s collected over one thousand books, which are all perfectly arranged in colour order on the bookshelf. By 8pm, the kids are tucked in and ready to go to sleep, and only then can Chloe sit and enjoy some time with her husband. While it does seem stressful, Chloe seems to have it all worked out and admits, “it’s definitely gotten easier over the years.”
Chloe added:” All of the children are in bed by around 8pm. It’s definitely gotten easier over the years with the night-time routine as they can all now dress themselves. With the triplets there for a bit when they were young, it was a lot of work. But I think with big families you have to do whatever works for you. The most important thing for us is prioritising connections and happiness. Everything stems from that.”