Mum-of-12 shares the secret to making a large family work

Britni Church, 31-year-old from the US, had her first child at 16 and now has a total of 12 children, including triplets. Photo / Instagram

In this modern age of the nuclear family, where the most common answer to the question "how many kids do you have?" is two, when someone opens up about what life is like to have 12 children it is hard not to be curious.

Britni Church, 31, from the US, had her first child at 16 and now has 12, including triplets.

Church has a popular Instagram where she regularly shares videos and insights into her busy life as mother of 12. It is not surprising that Church receives a lot of questions from her 115,000 social media followers and she makes an effort to answer them when she can.

On a recent video, posted to her TikTok account, Church received the following question from a fan: "No hate at all, genuine question, do you make it a priority not to parentify your older children?"

Church's answer was simple: "As a mum to 12 kids, I get this question a lot. It's simple. I don't make them do anything they don't want to do."

When another fan shared her own positive experience, where her older children liked helping with the younger, Church was quick to agree.

Church says of her older childreen helping out: "As a mum to 12 kids, I get this question a lot. It's simple. I don't make them do anything they don't want to do." Photo / TikTok

The fan commented: "But most of the time they WANT to, mine fight over holding and taking care of the baby."

Church responded: "Yes!!"

Although clearly proud of her large brood, Church admits that people can be very judgmental at times.

During an interview Church told CafeMom: "People assume a lot of things about us that just aren't true – we are just like everyone else."

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One area that might differentiate Church's family from most is their grocery bill. She has shared that as a family they spend roughly $440 a week on groceries, and go through five boxes of cereal, 66 cartons of milk and 600 nappies.

Church, who is from Kansas, gave birth to her first child, Crizman, 15, six days after her 16th birthday.

Although young the pair married five days before the birth of Crizman, and then had another four children together – Jordan, 14, Caleb, 13, Jace, 12 and Cadence, 10, before divorcing.

Church then unexpectedly fell pregnant with Jesalyn, now 8, in 2012, before meeting her current husband, Chris. The couple have had six more children together.