Octomom Natalie ‘Nadya’ Suleman’s stringent rules for Teen Octuplets (exclusive)

To raise 14 children on their own. Natalie ‘Nadya’ Suleman says she had to run a very tight ship.

Fortunately, the woman best known as “Octomom” of giving birth to the world’s first surviving Octuplets in 2009 says she knows a lot about how to breed healthy, balanced children.

“I was a major and youth development major,” Suleman says of what she was studying in Cal State Fullerton, where she served her bachelor’s degree as she raised her older children.

“With Elijah, then Amerah and then Josh and then Aidan, and then the twins, I continued to go to school,” she says of the six children she welcomed via IVF before getting her Octuplets. “So I also traveled them on campus with me, and I served my bachelor’s degree while I took 18 units at school and took care of all my children. I was not as the media portrayed, this unemployed welfare recipient. That was not the case at all.”

But even though she learned a lot about what the children need to succeed when it comes to her older children, “I personally think I failed as a parent to complete all the knowledge I have acquired in college,” she says.

Suleman continues, “I lifted them just allowed, which is wrong. You shouldn’t do it. You had to implement consistent structure, discipline and consequences plus love, unconditional love and acceptance. I only did the latter. I shouldn’t have spoiled them. I learned the hard way. But I still raised them to be kind and humble.”

With Octuplets, also devised via IVF, she explains, “I was able to implement both a combination of unconditional love, positive respect and structured discipline consequences.”

In terms of discipline, “she is very strict,” says 16-year-old Nariyah, “and she educates us a lot.”

As for some of the things that Octuplets cannot do: “They are not allowed to date until they are 18,” says Suleman. Also “we don’t have phones,” Nariyah says. “We have a phone for communication.”

The most important thing is that there are “no social media,” says Suleman. “It’s toxic. I don’t even like to go on it. I do it only to share, and I fear it. It’s like I can’t even imagine the kids these days. It’s so unhealthy. I don’t think anyone should go on social media or be allowed until they are 18 at least.”

For Suleman, it’s about teaching selflessness. I raise the kids for not being fixed so much on themselves. It’s very different today. I am a little older school in how I raise my children to focus on others, try to appreciate the servant, because then the by -product of internal joy and happiness, rather than, no violation of other people and other children these days, but they tend to be a little more, just let the self -bred and self -taught. I am traveling my children to be sufficient to suffice away from it. ”

She and Octuplets, along with some of her older children, are also vegan. “We save money because we don’t buy animal products,” says Suleman. “It’s also the most expensive. And it’s the healthiest. But we are ethical vegans, and so we do it primarily for the animals and to minimize the damage done on our planet.”

Suleman and 11 of her children live in a three-bedroom apartment in Orange County, California for Fun, Octuplets often play games at home, train at the gym or enjoy a weekly family movie evening. As adulthood is approaching, there are a few things they look forward to most.

“Driving!” Suleman’s son Jeremiah says enthusiastically, as his sister Maliyah agrees. But also to be able to work. Nariyah says, “I’m excited to be able to make money so we can obviously help mom.”

Suleman’s youngest Octuplet Makai says he can’t wait to buy her anything neat. “In the future, when we have our own money, we could get gifts, real gifts for you,” he says. As his mother responds to, “I don’t really want real gifts. I don’t like materialism. I love the letters you write.”

But adds Nariyah, “We can buy everything we broke.” No argument there. SULDER SULEMAN, “They broke so many things over the years.”

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I was Octomom has premiere 8 March while Confessions of Octomom Premieres March 10, both on longevity.