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Here's Why Octomom Is Giving Each Of Her Kids Only One Gift This Year

by Casey Suglia

When it comes to the holidays, finding the right gift for your (many) relatives can be difficult, let alone fulfilling the many wishes of your children. Octomom, Nadya Suleman, who now goes by Natalie, knows this to be true except eight times more than the average person. But her way of going about Christmas is a little unique, because Octomom is giving each of her kids only one gift this year, just not for the reason that you would expect.

The mom of eight, 8-year-olds (plus a few more) is forgoing the tradition of fulfilling her children's individual wish lists this Christmas not to save money, but to teach her kids the real meaning of the holiday season. But let's be real, giving her children one gift a piece probably saves a lot of money in the long run. Suleman explained her reasoning to Us Weekly, saying:

I'm focusing on raising the kids to focus on serving other people, to get out of their own head. Be grateful for one little thing that they get because they earned it. They're extraordinary kids. I'm so, so, so grateful.

Suleman has a point. The holiday season is so important for many reasons — including that it is the season of giving. There is a valuable lesson to be learned in focusing on the importance of giving to others, not just receiving things from other people. And from the sound of it, Suleman's kids seem to embrace that message.

But, Suleman did admit to Us Weekly that money is also a small part of why her children get minimal gifts each holiday season. Suleman had six children already before famously giving birth to her octuplets in 2009, according to USA Today, thus giving her a grand total of 14 kids. That is a lot of spending for one season (and Suleman seems to agree). Suleman said, according to Us Weekly:

We're on a budget and we're pretty much so grateful for every little thing. We're minimalist, too. They're all minimalist and I am. The real me is a minimalist, so I believe that one gift that they really want, you know, I'm incredibly grateful for that.

If the name "Octomom" is giving you flashbacks to a pre-Trump era, here's a brief refresher on the famous mom of multiples. After facing a lot of criticism from people after she gave birth to her multiples in 2009, Suleman struggled with being in the public eye. In 2016, during an appearance on The Doctors, Suleman said that she never wanted to become "Octomom" and adopt a public persona. Suleman said, according to People:

My history was haunting us. I left "Octomom." I went back to my life as a counselor. I went back and my kids had a healthy, happy life. The problem is it's followed us, because people never knew what I did. They never knew the true story.

This could be why Suleman kept her octuplets out of the public eye for so long, emerging now to share her family's Thanksgiving traditions and inform people how she teaches her kids to embrace the holiday spirit. There are some parents who agree with her method of buying gifts for her children.

While the amount of gifts that parents buy their kids is a pretty personal detail, some people on the internet have called on parents to scale back on the amount of gifts they buy their kids for the holidays. Actors Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis and parents of two are for the one-gift rule. Kunis told Entertainment Tonight that her and Kutcher aren't buying presents for their children, who are both under the age of three, for Christmas and are asking the kid's grandparents to buy one gift for each child.

Whether you agree with this philosophy or not, Octomom's approach to buying presents for her 14 children seems to work for her and her family.