In today’s world, a big family is a rare thing. Courtney Rogers is 36 years old, from Santa Fe County, New Mexico, and she has 10 kids. Those around her always have a lot of questions and some of them are not very nice at all. However, mother who’s given 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡 to ELEVEN 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren in 10 years says she’s already planning her 11th 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥 – and insists she will homeschool all of them. She admitted she will be sad when she finally stops having 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren.
She has rarely been without a bump or a new𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 in the 13 years since marrying church pastor husband Chris Rogers, 32
While you might assume that life in such a big family is chaos, they have a well-structured system in place, which is vital as Courtney and Christ homeschool all of their 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren.
Mum who had 11 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren in 10 years explains: “I don’t know why I like it so much – I don’t think I ever imagined having this many 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren when we got married. I just knew that I wanted 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren and when I became a mother, I realised how much I loved it. I love being a mother and I would really like to have another one. We’ll probably wait a year or two to try.”
Courtney documents life on the family’s 12-acre plot on her Instagram page Courtney Rogers.
They still go on family holidays, including trips to the beach ( Image: PA Real Life/Collect)
She shares the plot with Chris and their 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren – Clint, 10, Clay, nine, Cade, eight, Callie, seven, Cash, six, twins Colt and Case, five, Calena, three, Caydie, two, Coralee, 19 months, and now Caris, aged just seven weeks. She admitted she has faced some online criticism, with people questioning how the couple afford to care for their 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren, or how they manage to give them all enough attention. But Courtney said: ‘They don’t know how much income we have, or that I’ve never sent the kids to day care or school. We do plan on homeschooling all of them, so we haven’t been affected at all by the school closures in the pandemic.”
Newest addition Caris needed to spend 15 days in the new𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐧 intensive care unit (NICU) but now she is happily home, bonding with her six brothers and four sisters, all aged between 10 and one
And Courtney hit back at criticisms of her family set-up, saying she was used to negative attention. She said: ‘We’ve been getting comments since the beginning because they were so close in age. We just learned to ignore them – people say things but they’re people who don’t even know us so how they can judge? We know we’re doing what we wanted, and we love it and we’re giving them a good life. We know how we’re raising them, so we try not to let it bother us.”
They are settling back into an everyday routine, with the parents home-educating all the 𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘭𝘥ren over four or five years old – and working on their small farm
Courtney confirms that one of the biggest advantages of the small age difference between the kids is that they are at approximately the same level of their development and interests. Thanks to this, they usually play together well and do the same things together with pleasure. Another thing that she likes a lot is the unbelievable excitement that we feel at Christmas, on 𝐛𝐢𝐫𝐭𝐡days, and during family trips. She hope her kids will grow up remembering all the fun and chaos that they are swimming in together.