Single Mom Raising 10 Kids Shows Off Her Small 2-Bedroom Home — It's 'Not Aesthetically Pleasing' But They All Love It
Love is what makes a house a home.
cottonbro studio / Pexels Usually, when people post house tours on social media, they make sure that their houses look perfect, with not one thing out of place. Doing so projects an unrealistic expectation of what a home should look like, however.
Yet one woman shared a house tour that was refreshingly normal, showing all the lived-in messiness of raising a loving family.
A single mom with 10 kids showed off her small, ‘not aesthetically pleasing’ 2-bedroom home that her family loves.
“I’m just gonna do a house tour as-is, I’m not cleaning up beforehand,” Tiffany Connell declared. She showed off the kitchen, where two of her kids were playing on their tablets. She then went into the living room, where her other kids were relaxing together and watching TV.
The next part of her house tour went into the master bedroom, which she shared with one of her daughters. The bedroom was cozy and comfortable, full of signs of their life: Her kids’ clothes in the closet, a wardrobe storing her crafting supplies, along with the cleaning supplies she uses for work.
She showed off the master bathroom, which she described as “nothing fancy.” Like her bedroom, the bathroom was teeming with life: Toys surrounded the bathtub, and stacks of books were piled on the windowsill.
“This is where the kids like to chill,” she explained. “They come in here to kind of get away from their siblings a little bit, to get some quiet on their tablets, or to read a book, whatever they want to do.”
She went into the kids’ bathroom, saying, “I just realized, I probably should have wiped the mirrors beforehand, but I do that every night before bed, so, whatever.”
Photo: cottonbro studio / Pexels
She went into her 14-year-old daughter’s room, explaining that the teen girl was the only one to have her own bedroom. She showed off her sons’ bedroom, which looked lovingly messy like the boys truly enjoyed the space they shared.
“That is our house,” she concluded. “Our little, tiny house.”
In a follow-up post, she offered some context to her story, explaining that the house belonged to her ex-husband, and she was buying it from him.
She explained that they previously lived in her ex-boyfriend’s house, “a much bigger house, which still had only three bedrooms, but we made it work.”
“It is only my income paying for this house and all of the bills,” she said. “Plus, I still pay my portion of the rent at the other house, because I want my name to remain on the lease, and we go back and forth between the houses.”
She created a wishlist, which people fulfilled, including dishes, towels, dishwashing soap, and laundry detergent, all the necessities to run a household.
Photo: Blue Bird / Pexels
Connell hopes to replace the couch and get bunk beds and trundle beds, for a more permanent sleeping solution. She explained that it could get tough sometimes, trying to give all the kids a sense of privacy and their own space, but they were all flexible and made it work.
She gave a final declaration, saying, 'Yes, I have 10 kids in a three-bedroom with a double-wide trailer, because life gave us lemons and we’re making lemonade with it.'
“We did not want to pass this house up, because it is on so much land in the country,” she said. “This is literally a dream for us. The house is a little small, but it’s so worth it.”
In a third post, Connell answered the question of how many dads her kids had.
“I love this question,” she laughed. “I have 10 kids, 3 baby daddies, 1 baby mama.”
“Four of my kids are not biologically mine,” she revealed. “They are my ex-boyfriend’s kids, who I’ve helped him raise for the past six years; their bio mama has not been around for the past three years.”
“My kids’ dads are really good dads,” she said, touching on the implied moral politics of having multiple kids from different men. “Just because somebody has multiple ‘baby daddies’ doesn’t mean that they’re a bad person or the dads are bad people,” she exclaimed. “I know there are so many situations where that’s the case, but it’s not my case.”
“These 10 kids have three people to be wonderful role models for them, to help take care of them, to help teach them things, guide them, be there for their biggest moments,” she said. “It’s not a bad thing.”
“I think it’s a great thing,” she concluded. “Did I plan to have many children with multiple men? No, I did not. But I definitely think that we took our situation and made it a beautiful thing.”
Like most people, Connell has had things happen in her life she didn’t plan for. Yet she’s raising her kids with the loving support of the people around her, and like she said, that’s a beautiful thing.
Alexandra Blogier is a writer on YourTango's news and entertainment team. She covers parenting, pop culture, and all things to do with the entertainment industry.