CUYAHOGA FALLS: When Jennifer and Keith Hanselman became the parents of sextuplets, people all over the world started praying for them.
Now there’s a new reason to send up a few words on their behalf.
They have seven teenagers in their house.
Sunday is the 13th birthday of Alex, Bella, Sophia, Lucy, Logan and Kyle Hanselman, who were born Feb. 26, 2004, at Akron General Medical Center. They’re joining brother Connor, 15, in the tumultuous teen years.
The milestone brings a whole new set of challenges and worries for their parents, a shift from protecting the six from immediate dangers to helping them protect themselves from emotional hurts and poor choices.
But that’s not exactly new. “I feel like they’ve already been teenagers for a few years,” said their mom, who figures she and her husband could have bought a pretty sweet ride for the money they’ve spent on braces.
Life at the Hanselman house has changed considerably in the years since family members and other volunteers stepped in to help with the feeding, diapering, laundering and other child-care duties, chores made exponentially more challenging by the sheer volume.
Now the sextuplets are old enough to look after themselves and take on household duties like cooking, laundry and cleaning — albeit with some prodding, Jennifer Hanselman said with a laugh.
They’re teenagers, after all.
They’re also busy, which means the Hanselmans’ evenings are mostly spent chauffeuring kids to Scouting, school events or other activities in the 15-passenger van nicknamed the Hanselbus. It’s hard to tell who’s more excited about Connor approaching driving age, him or his parents.
On the flip side, Jennifer Hanselman has her days free now that the sextuplets are seventh-graders at Roberts Middle School and Connor is in ninth grade at Cuyahoga Falls High School. She works from home as a freelance writer and editor, while Keith Hanselman drives to Cleveland for his job with Sherwin-Williams.
Date nights are also easier now that the kids can stay home by themselves, although Keith Hanselman joked that he and his wife have to leave strict instructions not to call them unless it’s a matter of life or death. They laugh about the time one of the kids took the remote control into the bathroom so the others couldn’t change what was on TV. Whether that was Connor or Bella is a matter of good-natured argument.
The sextuplets are as alike as siblings and as different as, well, siblings.
Logan is the comedian, a budding actor and movie lover who hopes to pursue acting or film directing as a career.
Alex is the most serious, with a wry humor and an interest in technology and music.
Bella is a video-game aficionado with an intellect’s sharp, sarcastic sense of humor.
Lucy is droll and bright, with a creative streak she expresses through crafting.
Kyle is affectionate but stubborn and a little mischievous. He is nonverbal because of autism, but his mom said he’s clever enough not to let on how smart he is so adults won’t expect more from him.
Sophie is the mini-mom who likes to mother Kyle and boss her siblings around, “which doesn’t always go over well,” Jennifer Hanselman said.
Their older brother, Connor, has assumed the mantle of role model. He’s working on his Eagle Scout rank, installing flower beds and birdhouses at his siblings’ school.
As if those weren’t enough family members, the Hanselmans also have two dogs, Max and Elliott, and four cats, Cookie, Butterscotch and identical kittens Loki and Leo. “We had to put a collar on him [Loki] so we could tell them apart,” Jennifer Hanselman said — an ironic problem in a family of multiples.
The supersized family still attracts attention and comments sometimes when everyone’s out together, but people rarely realize the younger six are sextuplets. Connor figures that as the oldest, he has already answered all the questions teachers have about his siblings, so people at school rarely make a big deal out of one family occupying so many spots in a single graduating class.
The media spotlight has dimmed, too. For the most part the kids have little memory of being the subject of TV stories and newspaper articles, although Alex still recalls one TV experience as scary.
“Yeah, we were on, like, TLC or something,” Logan said, referring to the sextuplets being featured six years ago on the show Extreme Births. “Somebody thought we were on Oprah.”
Being part of such a big group is a mixed blessing, they said. “There’s always someone to hang out with, but there’s always someone to fight with,” Jennifer Hanselman said.
“Especially at 7 o’clock in the morning,” Lucy added.
Then there’s the issue of shared bedrooms. Several of the kids said they’re definitely over that.
Clearly, though, they’re comfortable with the togetherness and chaos that come with being a big family. Something as simple as trying to coax Kyle downstairs for a family photo turns into a sudden burst of laughter and commotion that fills their 3,300-square-foot house.
Pretty soon Alex has climbed onto the kitchen counter to try to snag one of the cats from atop a cupboard so it could be included in the picture. Sophie is groaning in protest as Bella tries to squeeze next to her on the sofa. Max and Elliott are racing around and leaping onto laps in search of hands to pet them.
Just another day at the Hanselmans’.
Mary Beth Breckenridge can be reached at 330-996-3756 or mbrecken@thebeaconjournal.com. You can also become a fan on Facebook at www.facebook.com/MBBreckABJ, follow her on Twitter @MBBreckABJ and read her blog at www.ohio.com/blogs/mary-beth.