Have you ever imagined a life with children while growing your own business and immediately thought, ‘I don’t know how people do it?’
[Related: Mompreneur of Six Shares 3 Steps For Starting a Business]
Well, what if ‘children’ means 6. That’s right, sextuplets, 4 boys, 2 girls, all the same age. What do you do then? Parents and entrepreneurs, Mia and Ro McGhee, answer that exhausting question with UP TV’s series premiere of Growing Up McGhee, premiering June 8, 2016, 9 p.m. EST.
BlackEnterprise.com caught up with the McGhees to find out how they’re still standing:
BlackEnterprise.com: How are you possibly maintaining your sanity with six 5-year-olds?
Mia: Lots of prayer
Ro: It’s a lot of teamwork. It’s like a business. We have to sit down and go over every detail when it comes to our family.
You’re currently balancing a family carpet cleaning business with 6 children–how do you pull this off?
Ro: Parenting comes first. We just adjust to the business.
Mia: A lot of it is tag-teaming. If the kids are home from school, I’ll perhaps stay home with them and Ro will go to the business.
Does having such a large family aid in your business savvy in any way? If yes, how?
Mia: We actually decided to go ahead and pursue the business so that we could be able to accommodate our schedules while having 6 children. Having a family period pushes you to want to be successful.
As parents of 6 growing children, tell me the one thing you believe you’re doing right?
Mia: The one thing we’re doing right is we’re raising respectful, outgoing kids. They’re confident, kids and that’s something we actively instill in them—and lots of love.
What are you finding it difficult to do, as parents, given 6 kids?
Mia: Treating them as individuals. It’s so easy to clump them together as a group. Even spending that individual quality time with each child can be very difficult. As you will see in this season on Growing Up McGhee, I wanted to make sure the kids all have separate kindergarten
Ro: What’s most difficult for me is remembering their names.
Do you find that having cameras in your family causes for a difficult setup?
Ro: After having sextuplets, what’s one or two more? We’ve been in the public eye with them ever since we had them. We’re used to it, and our kids are used to it. It’s nothing out of the norm for us.
What can viewers, particularly those who are balancing family with entrepreneurship, expect to learn from you and your family after viewing the show?
Mia: I think entrepreneurs will learn family first. It’s just about prioritizing.
Ro: You have to have structure; you have to have a system. It’s always the same routine. Keep the same system and it helps with business because you then know what to expect and after a while you don’t even have to think about it anymore because you know the routine.
You can catch the McGhees (all 8 of them) Wednesday, June 8, 2016, 9 p.m. EST on UP TV. In preparation for the lively, full family madness, visit UP TV, and check out the trailer below: