A mom of seven, who has gotten slammed on TikTok for having so many kids, posted a video sharing all the years she has been pregnant. She also shocked followers by revealing at the end of the video that she still wants more kids. The mom, Ariel Tyson, who goes by @arielctyson on TikTok, shares lots of wholesome content about having a big family, though she also received a lot of hate for it. She and her husband have six boys and one daughter, and appear to have chosen a nontraditional life, at least by modern standards.
Ariel’s video has gotten over 2 million views and more than 1,000 comments. Reactions from TikTok users ranged from “Why?” to “That’s a lot,” with some calling to “normalize” big families.
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Ariel said being pregnant is her personality.
The mom captioned her TikTok video, “When being pregnant is your personality buuut I dont have 10 kids! #dothemath How many different years have you been pregnant?” She then proceeds to dance to Meghan Trainor’s song, "Mother," with her youngest child in their kitchen.
The text overlay on her video listed all the years she’s been pregnant: 2009 (a pregnancy loss), 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2020, and 2021. She finished her video with the text caption saying, “And … maybe 2023?!
People's reactions to having seven children are understandable given the average number of children per family has been declining for decades.
It's not hard to wonder why Ariel has gotten so many responses and comments on her videos. Having seven children has become uncommon, and there are a lot of contributing factors to this. Inflation, the costs of child care and health care, and the fact that many families need two incomes to make ends meet.
Recent data from Statista showed that in 2022, there was an average of 1.94 children under 18 per family in the US, which was a decrease from 2.33 in 1960. Of course, families come in all shapes and sizes, and some parents may choose to adopt, foster, or conceive through surrogacy as well.
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The mom appears to clap back at haters in her videos. She clearly has lots of fun with her big family.
Ariel appears to have a good sense of humor — probably from being a mom of seven kids — and doesn't seem bothered by people's comments on TikTok. The mom seems to enjoy poking fun at the fact she and her husband have so many kids, and what that means for their future.
She posted a hilarious video using a filter that aged her and her husband with the text overlay caption saying, "POV: You're scrolling TikTok in 2055 and we still here with our 20+ grandkids."
TikTokers had mixed reactions to the mom's statement in the video.
Some women may be career driven, while others may choose to focus on family and being home with their children. All choices are good ones as long as it's the choice the mom made for herself. The decision to have a family (or not) and the size of that family is a personal choice unique to each person, something some TikTok users appeared to have forgotten when they commented.
“She's playing 100 kids the Sims 4 challenge,” one user quipped in the comments.
Another user wrote, “Sorry for you.”
“Please take a break,” someone else commented.
However, some comments were kinder.
One user wrote: “Girl, my grand grandma had 16 and she lived to be 96. Keep going. I have 5 myself!”
“Normalize large families," commented another. "I have 5 kids. I'd have more if my health was better. my last baby who's 12m i didn't do good postpartum.”
