While most parents struggle to get two or three children ready for bed each night, one mother is responsible for eight children who all demand bedtime tales and cuddles.
Three older children, Evan, 8, Otto, 7, and Felix, 6, make up Chloe Dunstan’s large family, followed by the triplets Rufus, Hank, and Pearl, 4. Then there are Sylvie and Cosmo, twins born in October of the previous year.
Chloe Dunstan, 27, 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.
Every night, Rohan and I spend hours settling the children so they may have an hour to themselves. The kids begin organizing their shared play spaces while she prepares dinner for everyone.
“The babies have a nap in their rockers, while the others do some tidying up,’ she explained.
“t the same time, I’ll cook the dinner for the kids.”
Chloe said sometimes she and Rohan join them, and at other times they eat later when the kids are in bed. After dinner, the kids take turns taking a bath and putting on their pajamas while Chloe takes care of the baby twins’ baths and feedings. The children like watching Sylvie and Cosmo take baths, after which they wash their teeth and hair in order to get ready for night.
“We read a night time story before bed,” Chloe said.
Chloe loves to collect books for the children and now has over 1,000 – all arranged in a colour coordinated order on the shelves.
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.
The triplets go to sleep while the older boys read by themselves for a while before drifting off.
While it does seem stressful, Chloe seems to have it all worked out and admits, “it’s definitely gotten easier over the years.”
“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.” Chloe said
The 27-year-old woman continued by saying that she and the kids frequently participate in home school activities and outings with friends.
A normal day for the busy mother involves getting the kids off to school, getting ready, and working from home with her husband to operate their successful online toy store.
“It’s all about teamwork in this household,” Chloe 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.”
