IN the 18th century, Mrs Feodor Vassilyev of Shuya, Russia, gave birth to no less than 69 children from 27 pregnancies. According to the Guinness Book of Records, she was the most prolific mother in history.
While homemaker Asmah Yaacob cannot boast a comparable feat, she does have a penchant for reciting these numbers: 27, 26, 24, 22, 20, 18, 16, 12 and 10. These are the ages of her children – 10 in all.
Marking the entrance of the family’s three-bedroom flat is a molehill of slippers, with sizes ranging from small to large.
“We’ve gotten rid of the sofa so there’s more space,” says Asmah’s husband, Nik Mohd Nik Dir, 54. A woven mat on the floor serves as a substitute.
“The hardest part is making sure that they listen to you,” says 51-year-old Asmah, who has five daughters and five sons, including a pair of twin boys.
“Ten kids, 10 different personalities. I’ve learnt to be extremely patient,” she quips.
Nik adds that the children take after their mother in her gentle ways. “Even as babies, they rarely cried.”
Disciplining the children was her husband’s task, but Asmah had little trouble handling them on her own. That is, until her mischievous twins were born.
“They were the naughtiest – the only ones in the family who made me geram (furious),” she says. “They are bolder because there are two of them – they liked to touch this and that and would never be home on time for evening prayers.”
Miraculously, Asmah never once suffered a bout of morning sickness during her pregnancies. Which made it easier for her to let nature run its course. Her maternal instincts, it seems, was born from the experience of being number two in a family of 11 children. Nik is the second of nine siblings.
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