If you’re weary of the mountains of laundry piling up at your house and tired of shuttling the kids to a seemingly endless stream of sports practices, then you won’t believe what “supermom” Lyette Reback, 44, accomplishes in just one day.
The North Palm Beach, Fla., mom dotes upon her 16 kids spread across a 21-year age span. There are 10 daughters and six sons in all, a bustling brood of beautiful spirits that lightens Lyette’s every day.
“It is challenging. There is no normal day in the Reback household.”
Who are they?
Lyette gave birth to her first baby, Daly Kay, at 21 and hasn’t stopped. She’s since brought into the world 11 more biological children and adopted four others children.
Altogether they are girls Ryli, 20, Bliss, 19, Kemper, 17, Glory, 15, Trinity, 13, Liberty, 11, Sojourner, 8, Victory, 6, and Verity, 4, and boys Courson, 12, Judson, 10, Shepherd, 10, Ransom, 8, Stone, 5, and Vaughn, who is 2.
“If I had known then that by the time I was 40 I would have 16 kids I would have thought it was crazy. If the number of children we have comes up in conversation or people see us out and they don’t know our family, they are like, ‘holy mackerel.’”
Because they obviously don’t fit into one vehicle, the family has an actual bus and, you guessed it, Lyette also is their chauffeur. Altogether, she drives the kids to 88 sports practices each week and dad David, 49, often is the coach.
An overload of chores, food
Every week, the family tackles 42 loads of laundry. Lyette and David believe it teaches good life skills to have each child participate in chores, even the toddler, and they follow a chore chart.
“At first when there were four or five little girls it was, ‘Oh my gosh, you are crazy, how are you doing that?’ People would joke or say things like, ‘Don’t you have a TV in your bedroom?’ Obviously, these remarks were either out of incredulity or they proposed my ignorance, but I am not stupid. Now some of them are a bit older and they are doing well in life, it seems it’s less of a freak show and they are saying, ‘Oh, maybe you’re not a weirdo.’”
Mealtime may seem daunting when there are that many mouths to feed, but the kids chip in and help with meals served buffet style. It takes 35 eggs just to make enough scrambled eggs to feed the family one breakfast.
The family works its way through $650 of groceries bought from a wholesaler a week, which includes 12 gallons of milk, up to 100 eggs, 40 pounds of chicken, and 40 to 50 pounds of potatoes or rice.
Every kid matters
Despite the family spending nearly almost every second of every day together, Lyette chuckles that she still confuses the kiddos’ names.
“They’ll say ‘I’m so and so’ and I say, ‘I know your name. I gave it to you.'”
Nothing gets done each day unless it’s on Lyette’s to-do list. She kickstarts each day at 5:30 a.m. with a prayer and a list. If she wasn’t busy enough, the insanely involved mom homeschools all of the kids, too.
“I always wanted a huge family. I always think, ‘What would life be like without this one kid?’ We felt like the family wouldn’t be complete.”
Having that many siblings may seem chaotic, but they really seem to enjoy it. One brother summed it up perfectly.
“The best part of having so many brothers and sisters is you always have someone to play with.”
Helping others
As if Lyette isn’t busy enough parenting 16 kids, she also operates a charity called Believe With Me that raises money for Gold Star families. And you guessed – the kids get involved with the projects, too.
“David and I were blessed to be able to have children and we really, truly believe that raising children is an incredible opportunity to do something amazing in the world. I fully understand we have chosen to do life differently than most, but it works for us. We wouldn’t have it any other way. I wake up each morning and think, “I can’t believe I get to do this. Raising children is the best job in the world.”
Drawing upon real-life experiences, Lyette also has penned a book about parenting and shares stories and doles out advice in her blog. She has plenty of fodder for more than just one book at this point.
“I’m constantly running at 100 mph and sometimes it’s overwhelming. It’s kind of bananas but it is somewhat organized chaos. It can get so busy that I can barely even remember my name at times but it is always worth it. With chores, sometimes I’m just like, “Oh my gosh, I would pay someone to do this right now,” because it’s so hard to get them to do it the right way. But at the end of the day, is the goal to have a tidy house or responsible children? I just really want them to have a solid work ethic.”
It’s the little things
Despite the busyness of their lives, Lyette insists on tucking each child into bed at night and they enjoy a weekly movie night together.
“I don’t know if we will have any more. We never put a number on it — we just take it one day at a time. I couldn’t imagine life any other way.”
See for yourself how busy yet exceptionally happy this huge family is in the video below. It’ll bring a smile to your face!
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