Getting a kid ready for bҽd is really a struggle for most average parents. So, what happens if you have eight children including twins and triplets? Must things be much more chaotic?
27-year-old mom, Chloe Dunstan, 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.
At the age of 22, the Australian mum already had three children with her husband Rohan – Evan, eight, Otto, seven, and Felix, six.
Before even having the chance to breathe, triplets Rufus, Hank and Pearl – almost five – came along before they were joined by twins last year. This busy couple quickly learned how to adjust to life as a family of ten, which meant being incredibly organised.
On her YouTube channel, Chloe Dunstan conceived all her kids naturally details her very busy home life.
In one clip, the young stay-at-home mum revealed that her night time prep starts at 4:30pm. That is also when she’ll cook dinner for the entire family. At this time, the older kids often help tidy their play room, while the rest have a nap.
Chloe said in the clip: “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.”
She says pasta packed full of veg is a super quick and easy meal to prepare for the huge brood. Understandably, the quicker the better because she has very little time to spend cooking in the kitchen. However, the mum still ensures the meals are nutritious as possible.
By the time 6pm rolls around, her kids are sitting down to enjoy their dinner, with Chloe and her husband only sometimes joining them. On busier days, the couple don’t have dinner until all the kids are asleep, which is a few hours later. While the book of the moment changes regularly, she revealed their favourite at the moment is The Gingerbead Man – and luckily they all agree.
Straight after dinner, the kids take turns having baths and popping on their pjs. Meanwhile, Chloe attempts to bath and feed the newborn twins. She is still watching over the older lot at the same time
However, she says there’s no time to sit and watch TV of an evening as Chloe has the kids brush their teeth and jump into bed to read a book after that.
Since Chloe became a parent, she 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 the mum sit and enjoy some time with her husband.
While these things seem stressful, Chloe seems to have it all worked out. She admits, “it’s definitely gotten easier over the years.”
“It’s definitely gotten easier over the years with the night-time routine as all bar the twins can 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.” She says
Previously revealing to FEMAIL ,The busy mum said that she homeschools all her kids – even before the global pandemic.
“We home school so there are a lot around, but we keep it really relaxed.
“The kids do a bit of school work, and then mostly focus on doing the things they enjoy like drawing, art projects, science projects, playing and spending lots of time outside.”, she said.
Chloe also revealed what a typical day might look like for life as a mum-of-eight.
The mum will get her kids started on some school work first thing, while continuing to run her own successful online toy store business with her husband from home.
She said: “It can be a lot with a career, home schooling and homework, but we manage it well together and doing all of this means we can maximise family time, which is really important to us.”