As one might imagine, parenting 14 kids under the age of seven is, in a word, challenging.
“That’s euphemistically speaking,” Octomom Natalie “Nadya” Suleman quipped in an exclusive interview with E! News, noting her choice of words was maybe a slight understatement.
“It was challenging, stressful beyond words,” acknowledged Suleman, who became better known as “Octomom” after she welcomed the world’s first set of surviving octuplets in January 2009. “But just to cope mentally, I had to very effectively channel my stress.”
Among mommy’s little helpers: An unwavering faith (“I have a very strong relationship with God”), a commitment to working out and maintaining a vegan lifestyle and the team of nannies she employed until Noah, Maliyah, Isaiah, Nariyah, Makai, Josiah, Jeremiah and Jonah turned 2. “And then,” said Suleman, “no help after that.”
While her six eldest kids—Elijah, now 23, Amerah, 22, Joshua, 21, and Aidan, 19, and 18-year-old twins Caleb and Calyssa—no doubt would have been willing to lend a hand, stressed Suleman, “I never ever allowed my older ones to become parentified.”
