Black Mom Goes Viral Bragging About Having 5 Kids With Multiple Baby Daddies
Controversial TikTok star Veronica Merritt — famous for having 11 kids and another bun in the oven — could barely contain her please final November when she posted a video announcing her new identity: Grandma.
"Nosotros have some heady news to share," the 36-yr-old told her 140,000 followers, revealing that her oldest child, Victoria — who still lives at home — is set up to deliver a infant in June. That means Merritt's 12th child, a male child due in April, volition be two months older than his nephew or niece.
Not everybody is happy about the imminent births. Merritt, whose offspring range from 2 to 21 years of age, told The Post that Internet critics are having a field day. One mudslinger commented, "U are to [sic] quondam to exist popping out any more than crotch goblins." Another wrote: "This family is dystopian nightmare fuel and the wheel goes on."
The Syracuse resident — who shares funny videos and gives frank answers to fans' questions almost her hectic lifestyle using the handle @ThisMadMama, insists she couldn't care less.
"I don't mind to the haters," she said. "Do they really think I'm going to be hurt by their opinions? I mean, come on!"
She rarely misses an opportunity to clap dorsum at detractors on social media and said she gets a kick from diggings trolls who attack her choices, such as accepting welfare checks, non working and homeschooling her younger children.
Merritt started having kids at historic period 14. At that place's Victoria, now 21; Andrew, 17; Adam, fifteen; Mara, xiv; Dash, 12; Darla, 11; Marvelous, 8; Martalya, six; Amelia, five; Delilah, iii; and Donovan, ii.
"People get on my nerves when they say, 'You demand to put your kids in school and go a existent job,'" Merritt said. "I'm like, 'You're a dumb f–k! Practise you know how much it would price the taxpayers for me to put all my kids in school?'
"I Googled information technology and it'south about $25,000 for a child to go to public school every year [from K-12.] It's actually cheaper [for society] if I keep mine abode."
Merritt is only too aware of the cost of raising such a large family. Crunching the numbers, she spends an average $2,500 a month on groceries at Walmart every bit well as fast-food joints for a weekly treat. As for the kids' vesture, she forks over around $4,000 a year on bargain websites and at austerity stores.
She also color codes her brood's outfits —some wear greenish, some clothing purple. some wear orange and and then on — to reflect their personalities.
"We don't really do hand-me-downs considering everyone has their own individual expression," Merritt explained.
The mom had to dig deep last year for the $3,000 purchase of a used school coach to transport all of them. At to the lowest degree the ascent price of gas hasn't affected them much. "We don't actually drive anywhere and, if nosotros do, it'south never very far," Merritt said.
Besides, there are no mortgage payments on the 3,000-square-foot business firm the family bought for a mere $xx,000 in 2020. It was so cheap because information technology was a foreclosure and, equally Merritt put it, "an abased fixer-upper." The residence has ix bedrooms, some of which still require repairs.
As for full-fourth dimension employment, Merritt — who previously worked at a souvenir shop — said she'd never be able to make plenty coin without "bonuses" from the authorities.
She relies on a monthly child credit payment of $2,000 and $1,500 in nutrient stamps, and the coin she's received as part of the federal family unit stimulus program. "I recollect it [the corporeality] was virtually $iii,000 per kid," she said.
Merritt claimed that neither of her infant daddies pays child support, although i covers the family's utility bills. She gets between $100 and $200 a month from TikTok — her earnings depend on the total number of views she gets — and, in a good year, brings in $xv,000 equally a freelance artist. Clients typically transport her photos of their families and Merritt re-creates the images every bit cartoons, charging $150 a pop.
Simply the income isn't steady. "I oasis't been doing much art recently," the mom said, citing wellness problems.
Merritt contracted COVID-19 last month and, in September 2020, had one of her kidneys removed. She's hopeful that the surgery volition halt the serious renal issues which she has suffered since childhood.
When she was in her early twenties, her medico advised her not to utilise hormonal birth command such every bit the pill in case information technology fabricated her condition worse. "I did actually want to be on it at the time," she told The Post. But she changed her mind after she "realized" that it was her "destiny" to have a lot of children.
"I'm not Catholic," said Merritt, who does not use any contraception. "But I'thousand pro-life."
The mom, a cocky-described libertarian, no longer shares her views well-nigh abortion on social media. Some two,000 Tiktok followers ditched her when she weighed in on the debate in one case final year. "There are sure [bourgeois] opinions that are not tolerated [online]," she maintained.
Merritt is a strong believer in fate. And, as a "spiritual" person," who is "in touch on with the universe," she claims the souls of her future babies "communicate" with her even before they are conceived.
"It sounds strange, but information technology sometimes feels like they're whispering in my ear," she said, adding she'd similar at least five more children. "I'm not dating right now and I'm super picky. But I'd love to keep on going."
She gave nascence to Victoria in 1999, while a freshman in high school. "I dated her father on and off," Merritt told The Mail. The couple conceived Andrew three years later and wed a year after that. They split in 2005, a twelvemonth into the union.
Merritt then hooked up with her 2d married man, Marty, the dad of her other 9 children. The quondam Navy man, whom she midweek in 2007, is also the father of the babe she's expecting, despite the couple being separated and at present in divorce negotiations.
"I wanted to be divorced from him as shortly as I married him," Merritt said. "He was immature, only I figured I wasn't perfect either."
She opted to take her kids out of school eight years ago and teach them at dwelling house after, she said, ane of her daughters was bullied.
"I take a relaxed approach since children tin can learn without having to sit for hours at their desks [studying] text books," Merritt said, adding she uses YouTube and other sites to aid her teach. The ages of the school-historic period kids range from vi to 17, but since some are at the aforementioned grade level in certain subjects, they can exist taught together.
"My 8-year-sometime actually reads better than my 11-yr-one-time," she said. "But they're all very smart."
Studies usually have identify in the living room or, conditions permitting, on the porch.
"I can bake cookies with them in the kitchen and [the measuring] counts every bit math grade," Merritt said. She can't afford to hire babysitters so her toddlers are oft kept occupied by watching videos and TV while their older siblings are educated.
Merritt has a deep suspicion of school authorities, who, she believes, reported her in the by to child protective services. Once, she heard rumors that teachers thought some of the kids may have been malnourished.
"They weren't getting fed enough at school, that's all," she insisted. "Whenever my son complained about existence hungry, the teachers would say that I wasn't feeding him enough. Information technology'southward only that he was used to eating a lot [at domicile]."
She chosen their assigned social worker — "who backed me upwardly since she knew the truth," Merritt said — and no further activeness was taken.
Schooling bated, she said the most daunting task is trying to proceed the house clean and tidy. The kids rarely help out, although Mara, 14, used to pitch in with the laundry in exchange for a monthly $x voucher for the online game Roblox. She lost motivation as she got older, so. these days, her sister, Martalya, half-dozen, is paid in candy for helping.
"We need to exercise two loads of laundry every twenty-four hour period," Merritt said. "And more if someone has an accident [wets the bed]."
The challenges, and rewards, of the family unit's unconventional lifestyle prompted a friend to suggest that strangers would exist intrigued by their daily routine. It took a few years before Merritt fully embraced the powers of social media, and she launched her TikTok in November 2020.
"I have no frigging clue why my videos are so popular," said Merritt, who hopes her audience volition grow one time she has baby number 12 and Victoria brings her newborn habitation. "Merely I've ever thought something about me attracts people."
She's known it since loftier school: "I wasn't [elected] 'almost likely to succeed' in the senior superlatives, only I got 'most individualistic' instead.
"I was the weirdest kid in school," Merritt said, "but I thought to myself, 'Enough people knew my name to vote for me.'"
Source: https://nypost.com/2022/01/22/pregnant-mom-of-11-veronica-merritt-wants-five-more-kids/
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