‘My big family is nothing but chaos’
Becky Parker, 32, is a senior advisor for the Citizens Advice Witness Service. She lives in Caerphilly with her husband Luke, 35.
Want to know the biggest challenge of growing up with seven siblings? It’s easy – only having one bathroom! I dread to think how many hours I wasted over the years, standing in line outside the door. As the youngest, I was always at the back of the queue, with my older siblings Allan, Leanne, Sarah, Chris, Claire and Katie getting to go first. Amanda, the eldest, was 19 when I was born, moving out when I was a baby and having her daughter Megan, my niece, in 1993. Amanda was like a second mum, and with me and Megan only two years apart, we became best friends.
PECKING ORDER
In our three-bedroom house, I shared a room with my sisters – four of us on bunk beds, plus a single bed for Sarah – and in the room next door were our brothers Allan and Chris. As the two youngest, Katie and I shared a bedtime, and if we woke Sarah up with our chatting, she made us stand in the corner until she fell asleep! ‘Oldest first’ was the mantra in our home, whether it was about the remote control or a seat on the sofa. The rule still applies today, but now that I have 19 nieces and nephews, ranging from 30 to 13, I’ve moved up the pecking order!
My siblings still argue and tease that I was the favourite, but it was only in my teens, after most of them had moved out, that I really felt spoiled, as Mum and Dad had more money to spend (Katie and Claire have never got over that I was given a Playstation at 13!). My big, noisy family is nothing but chaos, but I love it. When friends ask me what it was like growing up in a crowded family, I always say the same thing – I was never lonely and always loved, and that still stands today.
‘I WAS NEVER LONELY AND ALWAYS LOVED’