People are generally inquisitive to know of unique affairs. This is such a story from Australia about the largest Australian family with 16 children. The family is popular in Australia as the Bonell family. They live in Queensland in the city of Toowoomba, not very far from Brisbane. The children of this family are Natalie, Karl, Jesse, Samuel, Katelyn, Claire, Cameron, Brooke, Sabrina, Timothy, Nate, Eric, Damian, Rachel, Eve, Brandon.
House with one toilet and one bath
Jeni is now 48 years and Ray Bonell the husband is just one year older to her. Ray by profession is an electrician. At present the three elder children live away from the house as they have found employment but until recently they all lived in this four-roomed house with one bathroom and one toilet. Everyone has a comfortable sleeping space in the bunker beds arranged in the three rooms.
âToilet time is no doubt the biggest problem. It is a matter of organising things well. Everyone knows to manage the toilet and bath fast and others learn to cultivate patience,â Jeni said in an interview.
Feeding
âFeeding 18 mouths, including Rayâs and mine at three meals in no joke,â She said. They have a large dining table where she can get all to sit for meals.
The difficult time is the breakfast time. It is mostly cereal for breakfast with milk. So they can take their serve. When all the children were going to school and Ray to work it was really hard on her. âBut I never fuss. I get everybody to work fast. Elder kids help the younger to get ready and even feed them. They are trained for team work,â Jeni said.
The family vehicle
The family uses a bus for travel. Obviously such a large family cannot be accommodated in a car or a van. So they have bought a used school bus for the family and it is Jeni that drives the children to school.
âThey all do not go to the same school. So I have to start early and drop them in the respective school and collect them after schools are over. Everyone participate this in proper sprit,â she said.
Washing and cleaning
Jeni must be the hardest working woman in Australia to keep the house clean with eighteen people living in it. She must wash a load of clothes every day. It is about 30 kilos of clothes being washed a week in addition to the bed linen. âElders help in the folding of the dried clothes and ironing them.
The most difficult was the mix up of washed clothes, so I have used 16 colour codes for the clothes, so that they can be identified with the colour spotâ Jeni states.
Marketing
The tedious task is to get to the super market to buy groceries and stuff. She needs 25 large cereal packets, sixty litres of milk and four dozens of eggs per week. This is in addition to the chicken, meat vegetables, bread and other stuff needed for the month.
They need 600 dollars, approximately about seventy five thousand rupees to buy the groceries a week. âThe difficult part is to bring about two to three loads of groceries over to the mini bus,â Jeni said.
Festival times and birthdays
They do not need additional people to celebrate festivals and birthdays. Their gathering alone is sufficient. The family celebrates every birthday with gifts and food. All birthdays are displayed in the house. They make greeting cards for the family members and the mother makes a large cake and sing happy birthday and celebrate the birthday specially at the dinner time. Jeni says that the happiest time is when they enjoy Christmas.
They make a Christmas tree and Jeni wraps Christmas gifts for every kid and the husband. âShopping during Christmas is really funâ she added.
A woman who never wanted any children
Jeni, though a mother of sixteen children now, never wanted to be a mother even for a single child when she got married. It was Ray Bonellâs desire to have a large family and Jeni began to enjoy children as the numbers grew. When the sixteenth child was born, Jeni did not rule out the possibility of the seventeenth. Ray Bonell, the father of the children is so fond of them and is like a friend to them.
Entertainment
Like most of the Australian families, Bonell family also enjoys TV time together in the evenings especially after dinner. They have only one TV at the sitting room and all flock there to enjoy programmes selected by popular choice. Australian research shows that 74 per cent of Australians get entertainment through TV movies.
Sad news for Jeni
The sad news that Jeni was diagnosed with a cancer made prominent news of the press this year. She shared the news through the family face book that has a record 3,600 friends. The family together prays for her recovery whilst she is under medical care. âOur prayers are very strong and I hope that there will be great results,â she said.
