I’m a single mother of 12 children, Me and my kids survive by eating soup trolls mock me but I love having kids

Veronica Merritt, a 39-year-old single mother of 12 children, has opened up about her struggle to provide food for her family.

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She revealed that they survive mainly on soup because she cannot afford other foods. Veronica explained that their diet consists of hot dogs, packets of ramen, macaroni, and soup due to financial constraints, as her total food bill amounts in a year is $19,243.

As a TikTok content creator, Veronica shared her story, expressing that while she doesn’t regret having her children, she faces challenges in providing for them.

Despite the difficulties, she is doing her best to take care of her children with the resources available to her.

She said: “I never would’ve had kids if I’d waited until I was rich – I don’t regret any of my kids.

“I’m trying to take care of my kids as best I can. This month I didn’t have any money, so had to spend $1,400 (£1,1220) in food stamps.

“It’s impossible to feed 11 people on $1,400 – the prices of everything right now are tight.

“I used to feed a family of 12 for $500 (£400) a month but now you need $2,000 to $3,000 (£2,400) a month to feed this many people ramen.”

Veronica shared that she had her first child, Victoria, who is now 24 years old, in March 2000 when she was just 14 years old. She went on to have her first 10 children with her first husband. Later, she married an old friend who had two children of his own.

Her children include Victoria, 24, Andrew, 19, Adam, 17, Mara, 16, Dash, 14, Darla, 13, Marvelous, 11, Martalya, nine, Amelia, seven, Delilah, five, Donovan, four, and Modi, two. 

“I’ve got help with food stamps on and off over the years,” she revealed.

“Six boys and six girls is pretty perfect, especially because I colour code and have a boy and girl for every colour

“It’s oddly perfect how well it worked out.

“If I did want to have more, I’d have to be rich and hire a surrogate.

“I was 14 when I had my first, I was really young, and I didn’t really understand how reproduction worked.

“I thought you had to be 16 to get pregnant.

“I thought, ‘it won’t happen to me’, but it did, pretty much as soon as I was sexually active.

“I don’t think of kids as accidents. They’re my little surprises.”

 “I really like growing my family. I like having babies.

“I thought ‘I’m just going to see what nature decides and see what happens, you know?’ And so I just kept getting pregnant.”

“Housing is about $13k but that’s just taxes and utilities – we have no mortgage or rent.

“School supplies cost me about $4k and trips to visit family cost a few thousand dollars.

“I used to work at Chuck E Cheese a few years and worked in McDonalds when I was a teenager.

“My TikTok usually makes $1200 – $7,000 (£5,600) a month through the creator fund but I haven’t been posting much so last month I only made $300.

“This month I only made $70 – so I really need to post more.”

“I wish I would have chosen better partners so that I wasn’t a single mum right now,” she added.

“But I love having babies.

“I think that having a baby is like the greatest, most precious and wonderful thing ever.

“We’re living on ramen, when we used to be able to buy anything.

“I used to be able to go to the grocery store and get whatever we wanted and not have to worry about it.”

How she feels about people trolling her on Tiktok, she said: “People comment on my TikToks that if you’re not perfect you shouldn’t have kids at all

“I’m just trying to take care of the kids as best I can.

“I’m just very honest about things online.

“I don’t only show the best meals – I’ll show them eating hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.