Mom's viral video responds to the question on why she has 'so many' kids
It’s not because she wants to deplete the Earth of all it's natural resources.
— -- A mom of six who has been asked one too many times why she has "so many kids" decided to answer the question once and for all in a now-viral Facebook video.
Jenny Evans, who lives in New England with her husband, Phillip and six children ages 1 to 13, is the woman behind the Facebook page Unremarkable Files. Her video, posted earlier this month, now has more than three million views.
The hilarious video explains that she doesn't have "so many" kids because she likes having all her stuff broken or because she's "trying to deplete the Earth of all its natural resources."
"We never had 'a number' or consciously decided we were going to have a big family, but simply made room for one more whenever we felt like we could," Evans told ABC News. "Having a new baby join the family and watching everyone's relationships with everyone else grow is the most amazing thing. I just never get tired of that."
She said she gets asked about the size of her family even when she doesn't have the kids with her. "It's pretty clear from the 5 cartons of milk in my shopping cart that something is going on, so there's no escaping the questions."
Complete strangers are more likely than friends to ask about her family's size, she said.
"I think people who ask about our big family are just surprised. I don't think most of them are trying to be rude, although they sometimes are rude," she said. "Sometimes they'll say things like 'Wait until they're teenagers!' or 'You're done now, right?' and it genuinely makes me sad to get this vibe like, "Kids are the worst.'"
"Rarely, someone will say, 'You have beautiful children,' or, 'You're so lucky,'" Evans said. "You ride that high for a while because it gets discouraging to feel like other people look at the family you love and only see the bad things."
Evans said she's not surprised by the response to her video.
"Big families gravitate toward each other because it's nice to be understood that we're not weird or crazy," she said. "We're just like any other parent trying to do our best. Plus, we like to joke about our chaotic lives with someone else who understands that deep down we actually love it."
And, oh, the reason she has "so many kids?" Because she enjoys them.
"There's this misconception that kids in big families suffer and that they're all starved for attention," she told ABC News. "It's true that there are dysfunctional big families out there, just like there are dysfunctional small ones. But I think as a general rule, kids in big families are the most well-loved kids on the planet. The siblings are there for each other. The parents make family their top priority. And [the children] learn a lot about what it means to be part of a team."
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