When Karen’s friend asks her about how much “me time” she’s been getting, the Doubling Down with the Derricos mom replies, “I don’t speak that language.” With an ever-growing family just joined by triplets, Karen and Derrico have their hands full, quite literally. When thoughts of getting a nanny for the 14 children crop up, Karen and Derrico find themselves in a bit of a fix!
They say when you sign on to be a parent, a 24/7 shift is all that’s offered. So what happens when a couple has 14 children under one roof? Karen and Deon from Doubling Down with the Derricos haven’t had any complaints while they raised 11 wonderful kids aged 2-14. However, as soon as the triplets arrived, the parents of 14 children really felt the parenting pinch. With no real support back home and Karen’s difficult delivery, the Derricos had a list of tasks to take care of. Be it running after the little ones at home, or visiting the tiniest ones at the hospital, this was the first time that Karen thought she needed an extra hand. However, while Karen Derrico is a super mom, the idea of people blaming her for having 14 children in the first place crossed her mind. Considering the number of activities the Doubling Down with the Derricos family does, Karen is not ready to settle for anyone lesser than a “Mrs. Doubtfire.”
When Deon suggests “we have to get help” to his wife, she does have her doubts. Karen’s own mother is aging and Deon’s mother Gigi has gone back to Detroit, so the reality TV parents have to rely on their friends for help. Karen makes sure to give equal attention to all her children, and TLC fans see that when she celebrates the quintuplets’ birthday even as her baby Dawsyn gets ready for heart surgery at the hospital. The quints’ kindergarten teacher Jessica comes along to the bowling alley birthday party to help out, and Karen wonders if she’ll ever be able to find someone of her caliber to hire as a nanny. Then, her friend Julie with two kids, who has hired two nannies, puts Karen on the spot about how many nannies she’ll need for her Derrico brood.
Considering the Doubling Down with the Derricos children all get ready by birth order and have fixed routines for everything, a nanny would have to be trained by Karen before she could begin work. This would be a problem for Karen, who’s just been through sixth delivery and is still pushing herself to be the super mom that she is. There is also the fact that the stay-at-home mom has to deal with emotional stress since her baby must go through surgery. Karen also has to take care of household chores. The preview for the next episode of Doubling Down with the Derricos showed her interviewing nannies along with her real estate investor husband. One of them, upon hearing that there are 14 children involved, goes, “Woah, wait a minute!” If finding the perfect nanny is a problem for the Derricos, that's not surprising, as any nanny will need to have enough experience to look after a big group of children.
However, Doubling Down with the Derricos was filmed over a year ago, and some happy developments have occurred since then. The kids love their grandmother Gigi aka Marian Derrico, as seen in a previous episode, and it turns out that she’s moved permanently to Las Vegas to stay with them. The Derrico family has been getting lots of help during the pandemic from the matriarch. Gigi’s been with them for the past four months. In a recent interview with Zora, Karen and Deon joked about Gigi giving them enough time to be alone, but only under the condition that they “don’t bring home any [more] babies.”
Doubling Down With the Derricos airs Tuesdays at 10 pm ET on TLC.
Source: Zora