Daily Life for Dundee Family of 14 The Hanns

Part 3 of My Interview with 16KidsandCounting Star and Mother of My Life My Big Family Wedding Narrator

Catch Emma on BBC breakfast at 8:40am Tuesday February 26th 2013

Emma Hann tells me, “We have routines but nothing is very strict in our home and we tend to be quite flexible. We don’t have anything organised or written down, I have a calendar in my phone that gets most everything.

I get up at 6:45, normally still with a suckling baby Posy at my side, and wake up Alice and Charlotte, they go over to our church for a 45 min seminary (scripture) class. They quite enjoy it (surprisingly) they have friends there and do a little breakfast treat etc.

7:00 I start getting Annabelle, Jennifer, Isabella, and Jonas up and ready for primary school, trying to avoid waking Posy, Eva and Enos.

7:45 I start getting these 4 in the car and off to their school, where they go for breakfast club at a cost of 25p a day, (total £1) cheaper than cereal and milk! It also allows me the time to do my second school run of the day.

8:15 I gather the sleeping Eva, Posy and Enos and load them into their car seats, and take Charlotte and Alice to their secondary school. On the way home from that run I pass by the hospital, and pick Roy up from his nightshift!

We then go back to the house and clear the mess that the whirlwind of school preparation has caused.

Roy then goes to bed for the day whilst I am left with Enos, Posy and Eva.

Then it’s getting them dressed, laundry, laundry and laundry!!

I then take Enos and Eva to afternoon nursery, Posy will normally nap, and if I get a chance I will try to catch a little nap with her.

Then Roy normally will do the 3:15 school run, then the 3:45 older school pick up, then tea time Roy will normally help with dinner, he has become an amazing cook and loves making his own pizza dough, naan breads, chapatiis, anything cheap that will fill lots of hungry people.

We do some online shopping, bulk butcher purchases, ie half a pig, we go to the farm for 5 dozen eggs a week. Meal planning saves us money, but we don’t always do it, the menu for the week is great when we are organised.

Then we have homework, playing/fighting sometimes dancing/ singing, piano.

We try to get the children to help out around the house; we reward with pocket money, point system, whatever is our new dangled try out idea of the moment until they break us down and foil the plan. Some of the children are good at helping with what needs done just to help.

8pm Roy gets dropped off at work. Then the crazy bedtimes start but continue until they end up fast asleep, normally with 3 little ones in my bed!

Bedtimes are one of our struggles. We try to make sure the school age children get the best sleeps as they don’t get a chance to nap in the day. It’s not easy as most if the children share bedrooms.

We have never had a bed wetting problem. In fact I tend to start potty training when I notice my little one is dry at nights. Potty training then happens quite quickly.

Then back to the beginning again!

On Roy’s days off, it’s normally through the week when the children are at school, if my oldest daughter is off University that day, or my sister in law is free, we sometimes have a little trip to St. Andrews where I use my Tesco vouchers on Pizza Express lunch and a wander of the second hand shops in the upmarket town. A little girly day gives me a little “me” time.

Part 1 & Part 2 of the interview