A MUM has told how people stop and stare at her family of ten - and she’s even had strangers take photos of them.
Jane Brosseau, 44, who lives in Camas, Washington, had always wanted a large family with her husband Bill, 50, but had never expected to have so many children.
Speaking exclusively to Fabulous, Jane said: “I am an only child and had always wanted siblings growing up so I knew I wanted to have a lot of children, but I never thought it would be as many as ten.
“We never put a number on it but once you get over a certain amount you’re in that big family realm and you stop noticing the number growing.”
The couple are now parents to six girls and four boys aged between 18- two, sadly they also lost a child to miscarriage in 2005.
Jane, who has changed 50,000 nappies in her lifetime, says that they never noticed how big the family had got until their seventh child came along.
“That’s when things really started to change,” she recalls.
“We could no longer fit in a traditional car. We had to move to a 15 passenger van.”
Aside from logistics becoming more challenging for the family, Jane, who posts about her family on Instagram and Facebook, says they started to notice they were attracting more attention - and not all positive.
“That’s when we started to get a lot of stares and negative attention that comes with a large family,” she says.
“Strangers stop, and stare and count our kids, especially when we’re coming out of our van because it does look like a clown car.
“We went out to a fast food restaurant recently and strangers were even taking pictures of us which I’m not OK with, but I have developed a thick skin.
“It still surprises our kids because our family is normal for them. My two eldest are a little reluctant to admit they are one of ten because they never know what the reaction will be.”
And it isn’t just strangers who make unwanted remarks.
“Our family members aren’t immune to the odd comment either,” Jane says.
“Every time we'd announce another pregnancy the reaction would be, ‘really? Aren’t you done? Why are you doing this’.”
While Jane never lets any comments get the better of her, she admits that caring for a brood of varying ages comes with its challenges.
“My children range in age from two to 18,” she says.
“It’s incredibly difficult to meet all the different needs. I have every stage of childhood happening at the same time.”
Jane starts each day by preparing ten breakfasts as well as eight packed lunches for her school-age children.
With two little ones at home she is faced with two loads of laundry and by the time her older kids are home, she has run and emptied the dishwasher three times.
Jane does three sets of bedtimes, though she admits that keeping the kids in bed is never easy.
“Of course all of the kids will then get up and need to go to the bathroom or have a glass of water,” she explains.
“When I wake up in the morning there will be a couple of younger ones who have crept into my bed.”
Bill works in high education sales, travelling regularly for work meaning that Jane is often left to juggle the chores solo.
She adds: “My older kids are incredibly helpful, we are a team, but I do try to put a limit to what they give me a hand with because at the end of the day they are kids and they’re not parents and I don’t ever want them to resent being part of a big family.”
With the family relying on the income of Bill, Jane has a strict budget in place, particularly when it comes to the food shop.
“We have a strict food budget,” she says.
“We spend on average $600 (£456) a week on food. I spend my Sundays planning out meals for the week to make sure we keep within that budget.
“I visit the supermarket twice a week and visit a big wholesale store twice a month, food is definitely one of our most costly expenses, coming only second to our mortgage.”
With food coming in at a sky-high cost, Jane has found other ways to keep her spending down.
“We are very tight on our budget and we do have to be very thoughtful about what purchases we’re making and there is sacrifice that comes with that and there are things we have to say no to,” Jane says.
“We are very good at utilising free and low cost activities, such as going on hikes, taking the kids to the park, enjoying a bike ride or taking a dip in our local lake.
“We definitely take advantage of hand-me-downs from older kids to younger kids as well as friends. We also do a lot of thrifting and second-hand shopping.
“Large families are very resourceful, we can stretch our food budget and there is very little waste.”
Budgets, chores and trolls aside, Jane admits that one of the most difficult things she has dealt with as a mum-of-ten is her changing body.
“After my ninth baby I had a lot of postpartum recovery issues such as pelvic floor issues and prolapsed internal organs including my bladder,” she recalls.
“I really struggled to adjust to that change.
“I had to find that balance of appreciating all that my body has done for me and accepting that it will look different.
“After my tenth my body changed again so much, it has been a journey and I wasn’t crazy about how it looked but postpartum bodies are beautiful.
“You’re going to look like you have a baby and that’s beautiful but it’s not shown that way in social media.”
Jane also suffered with hyperemesis gravidarum (HG) in seven of her 11 pregnancies, a condition that causes severe nausea and vomiting that the Duchess of Cambridge famously suffered with, which she links to perinatal depression.
It is for this reason, Jane says, that she and her partner have made the decision to stop their family at 12 - although she would like more.
“We are done,” she says, “Having had so many HG pregnancies there’s no way I would be able to put my body through it again.
“Though if I was younger and if I did not have HG I would definitely want another one or two more.
“It sounds crazy but some people are made to be a large family mum and that’s definitely me.”
