0:00
I've been pregnant for four decades, and now I'm a mom of 11
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It's on fire, mom! No! No! That's the third class! People automatically assume that you're on welfare
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or that you have more than one father for your kids. Sounds like more than one daddy
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Rob can't keep her baseball. Do you have any regrets about having so many kids
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Ooh, um... You guys, the grocery is here. I need everybody to come on and help get the groceries
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If you don't sum up, you don't eat. My name is Erica. I have given birth to 12 kids, but I actually have 11
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And Eilena was actually a twin, and she lost her twin during COVID. And I just want to make sure we still include her
0:41
Good job, Spud. I spent majority of my life pregnant, I want to say about 15 to 16 years
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All right, let's start breakfast. Nobody been out open nothing. Didn't I just say don't open nothing
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How would you describe your life in your household with so many children
0:58
It's actually hectic. It's literally something going on every moment of the day
1:03
It's exciting and fun, but crazy. And who got yogurt in my hair
1:07
Who got yogurt? Sorry, sorry, sorry. I say I'm a single married mother because my husband works two jobs
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So I'm literally parenting by myself. The most challenging thing about raising 11 kids is feeding them because they are all big and they eat a lot
1:25
Is this an average grocery shop for you? It's actually way more than this
1:29
This is just one day's worth of groceries. Yes, this is one day. We usually get like the whole counter's full of groceries or like the floor as well
1:37
On average, how much do you spend on groceries each month? Oh, in a month, I would say at least $3,000
1:43
The most thing that's expensive is food. Clothing is not really expensive because I kind of shop when everything goes on sale
1:50
I try to wash at least five loads a day. In the morning time, I start a load. Once that load finished, we start another load
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And then on the weekend, it's like double time. So each day, we have to wash at least four loads, four to five loads a day
2:01
I actually make my own detergent over here, a big bucket, yeah
2:05
The joy of having older kids too is that because they work, they actually help pay for it
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Everybody that lives here has to contribute. Nigel's here. Oh my god, it's the first time seeing you, mama
2:18
Hi Hey All of the kids live at home except for Nigel the oldest He lives with his wife and her two sisters Okay so how many over eggs is coming out and how many So a whole container a whole carton
2:33
Get it out! Get it out! It's on fire, Mom! It is not on fire. Y'all better call me
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It is on fire! The kids help out with everything. I'm not cleaning up after no grown kids
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Everyone has to mop. Everyone has to sweep. Everyone has a day that they do dishes
2:47
and if you didn't do the dishes and didn't show me a picture in the group
2:51
where all can see that your dishes are done, they didn't get done. Cornbread was yesterday and he didn't do a picture
2:57
He didn't send a picture in the group of his job being done. So that's how Cornbread got
3:01
It's still your day. So if he don't take a picture again, he has them again
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Then he's going to have them again. Yep. I didn't want kids at first. I was taken away from my mom when I was three
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I was raised that my mom was my sister and my grandmother was my mom
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until I was about 10 years old. It was definitely a confusing time for me
3:19
My husband's name is Clevon, and we met in ninth grade English. When we did start talking about kids, I said that I wanted a tribe of kids, and he said he wanted a football team
3:28
As you can clearly see, it's a lot of us, you know. So this is fairly what happens every day
3:36
What were your attitudes towards birth control over the years? Did you use it? We actually got pregnant several times on birth control
3:43
I've gotten pregnant on the ring. I've gotten pregnant on the shot. I've gotten pregnant on the pill. I've gotten pregnant on a neuroplante. So it just doesn't work
3:53
Having kids, I never felt like it was too much. It would be the amount of C-section because I've had seven C-sections
4:00
You're only supposed to have like two to three. So that kind of once I had seven, I was like, OK, maybe this is time to stop
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And then I had two C-sections in one year. So that too kind of was like, OK, I think it's about time to stop
4:16
Growing up with 10 siblings, I felt like it was never a dull moment
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and that it was always chaotic. And I like a little bit of chaoticness every once in a while
4:24
It's pretty fun. Stop asking for help. Stop. Bro, you do that perfect
4:29
Cornbread, what the hell? That's a third glass. That's your new glass, mom
4:34
Take this phone. Did you have to play like a mom role at all for the younger kids
4:38
Yeah, I've been having to play a mom role, and I think that's why I'm with mother now
4:43
because I had the opportunity to be a mother to other kids Would you want to have as many kids as your mom when you older Nah no I would not want kids like them I know since I their sibling my kids might turn out like them
4:56
I'm not. From my perspective, they were annoying. I'm going to be honest. Everybody annoying
5:02
Especially you. Sometimes the camera are. I have always been a strict mom
5:11
I've never really had a problem with my older kids. And I think they're still traumatized from when I was a tough parent
5:21
Now that I've gotten a little older, my kids think that I'm getting soft. When the older kids were younger, if something was on the floor, I'm like, get it up right now
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Now I'm just like, okay, as long as you get up, by the end of the day, we're fine
5:32
Like, it's not hurting anyone. Just leave it alone. No, no, not even close
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Because back in the day, she was just real quick. It's just, throw you into next week
5:48
And they got phones. They got phones at five years old. I had a phone in eighth grade
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I didn't even have a phone in eighth grade. I didn't get a phone until I was in high school. I got a phone at 17
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I take everyone's phone at 10 p.m. Even the older kids. After school, no phone
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It's Friday, Saturday, Sunday, and I still take it at 10. The older kids mentioned that they didn't get phones until they're older
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Oh, they told. The younger kids now. What changed? Safety. For me, it's the protection of me being able to reach them while they're at school if anything happened
6:22
When did you start sharing your family life on social media? We actually didn't start sharing our family life on TikTok or YouTube
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Nivea just started involving me in her videos, playing pranks on me and just doing little stuff to me
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We did something to her. She ended up chasing us around the room with like a belt and stuff
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So I was like, okay, they enjoy that. So we ended up having her more in our concert
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You see mom? We had a couple videos go viral. She did a video where she said
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my mom has been pregnant this many times. And so that video kind of went viral
6:57
I never recorded with my dad. He's not a camera person at all. So I plan to get an introduction of him
7:03
Mom, Dad, come here! All right. Hi to Mama Hughes This is my father of all told my siblings Hey what up everybody Judgment and negativity It always you guys have so many kids how do you feed them people automatically assume when you have a lot of kids that you on
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welfare or a government assistant that's not always the case we do work jobs and then they
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automatically assume that you have more than one father for your kids that's not always true either
7:32
sounds like more than one daddy nope nope just one dad for all of us
7:41
I just don't have the time
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of the day to worry about someone else worrying about me it's just not important to me
8:00
so negative comments you can write them a thousand times they do not matter i'm a breeder it's in my blood
8:13
do you have any regrets about having so many kids oh um i don't have any regrets about having so
8:21
many kids i probably would have had more if i hadn't had seven c-section but yeah it's really
8:27
a lot of fun. Being a mom taught me that you cannot take everything serious. You cannot get
8:32
upset about what these kids do. And my hope for my kids is that they do something that they enjoy
8:37
I always tell them, go to school and do something that you love and enjoy so you can continue to do
8:42
it. And my hope for my family is eventually I would like to be on a farm with all of the kids
8:48
and just doing our own little thing somewhere all far away. Would you all like to have your own large families in the future
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Or how many grandkids are you guys going to get care of? I would not like to have any more kids
9:00
This is it right here. I'm going to just take care of my nephews and nieces. I want 15
9:04
I want 15 of mine. I want to be like my mama. If we all had 10 grandkids, you would have 100 and 1, 100 and..
9:13
No, no. You forgot how to count. That would make it. 110 grandkids
