Welcome kids certainly isn’t easy, but parenting has no limits for this mum-of-10 who adopted six kids – as well as having four biological babies of her own. New York couple Alicia Dougherty, 40, and Joshua, 42, tried for a baby for nine years, but experienced 11 ᴍɪsᴄᴀʀʀɪᴀɢᴇs ᴅᴜᴇ to Alicia’s stage four ᴇɴᴅᴏᴍᴇᴛʀɪᴏsɪs. Alicia was ᴅᴇᴠᴀsᴛᴀᴛᴇᴅ to be told she ᴡᴏᴜʟᴅɴ’ᴛ be able to have a baby – but went on to surprise everyone by giving birth to four babies and adopting six more children. She’s now a mum of ten.
The family began to grow back in 2010, when the couple adopted Alex, now 15. Alicia flew to South Dakota to pick up four-year-old Alex and bring him home. Alicia said: “It was crazy, we left New York without any kids and came home with a son. It was so amazing to finally have our child in the house. He ran into the room and he was so excited and shouted ‘mum and dad’ – he was so happy to have us. It felt so good to have him with us, but it was a real learning curve. Not having kids before at this point we didn’t know where to start.” Just six days after Alex moved in with his parents, Alicia found out she was ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ. She said:”Joshua and I were in sʜᴏᴄᴋ for hours, we were pinching ourselves but it was so incredible” . Stunned, she ᴄᴀʀʀɪᴇᴅ to full term and gave birth to Zoey, who is now nine, in 2012.
Still broody for a bigger family, the couple then adopted James, now 14, a year later. Content with their family, they thought their chances of ᴄᴏɴᴄᴇɪᴠɪɴɢ ɴᴀᴛᴜʀᴀʟʟʏ were minimal – but then Alicia fell ᴘʀᴇɢɴᴀɴᴛ again and gave birth to now seven-year-old Dash. A year later in 2015, the big family grew by two as twins Jordan and Jason joined their clan initially as fosters. Having to raise such a large family is not easy. Alicia said: “It’s pretty hectic and requires a lot of routine. I get up a 5am every day to get their lunches sorted and just to prepare myself for a wild day. I cook for an army, I forgot what it’s like to cook a normal portion. We have stacks of boxes of pizza on a Friday night, a huge dish of pasta on a Monday, and tacos on a Tuesday – I’ve got the dinner routine down. To think I spent nine years believing I’d never have a child and now I have 10 – it’s incredible and I definitely want more.”
The mum-of-10 recently revealed that she spends £876 on supermarket shopping weekly which consists of 25 bananas 5.5kg of chicken and 191 packets of crisps. Unsurprisingly, this usually means up to four trolleys worth of food each time and cooking is like preparing for a ‘family buffet’. But to put that into persepctive, the family go through three dozen eggs and at least 20 slices of bread in one day when Alicia is cooking for the entire family – and that’s just for one meal. The busy mum shared a video on TikTok which showed exactly what her kids eat in a single day, and the thought of preparing so much food makes our eyes water.
On this particular day the family enjoyed a cooked breakfast for dinner which took three dozen eggs, three pounds of bacon, 20 slices of bread and six pounds of oranges. Despite the supersized family though, the kids are still treated to McDonald’s on occasion – but it’s certainly a pricey affair. Showing off the huge order, Alica revealed it costs a huge $100 each time as she showed off the the large fires, Happy Meals and burger boxes that make up the kids’ lunch. But before long they are hungry again with Alicia whipping up more snacks and it seems it’s never ended in the Dougherty household. Alicia previously revealed that each child favours different snacks, so she’s forced to stock up on a wide range of treats – and she isn’t shy about the amounts either. What’s more, she has to visit the supermarket almost every day to stock up on items she forgot or that they just ran out of.
The busy mum also shared what Sunday dinner looks like in their household and the eye-watering amount that’s required. Detailing what’s involved in a pasta and meatballs dish, the mum-of-ten explained that they typically go through three pounds of pasta, sixty meatballs, four jars of pasta sauce, 16 pieces of garlic bread and a whole bag of frozen corn – for just one meal. Understandably, Alicia revealed that ‘once upon a time’ she would have made the pasta sauce and meatballs herself, but life got that much busier with ten kids and she just doesn’t have the time. While many parents like to treat their kids to ice-cream every now and then, the cost of this family’s trip is enough to put you off for good. Alicia revealed that a single scoop of ice-cream each will cost a huge $65 for the family-of-12 as she shared the mega order on TikTok.
