The Mahoneys : Eight Children

GAIL AND JOE MAHONEY OF Woodland Hills intended to have two or three children. But after years of trying, they were told that they probably couldn’t have any. Then, after Gail began to take fertility drugs and the Mahoneys gave birth to their first baby, Kim, 18 years ago, Gail’s doctor said they should thank their lucky stars and start thinking about adoption. Instead, they went into production. They had four children in five years, one miscarriage, and then four more, ending with an even number of girls and boys. The youngest child, Theresa, is 5. Peggy Sweeney, 24, a college student and family friend who has lived with them for five years, helps out when things are hectic, which is most of the time.

“I think the fact that we had trouble getting started gave us a much greater appreciation of children,” Gail says. “They’re not objects. They’re not just something you can plan on.” Her love affair with her kids starts in the uterus. “They’re already real people when they’re in there,” she says. “Some are bouncy, like Ping-Pong balls. Others are huge and lumbering.”

At the time of her first pregnancy, Gail was teaching autistic and aphasic children. She expected to resume working, but bringing up a family quickly became a more interesting job. “Being a parent--that is a career,” she says. “There are no limits to the hours. There are no pay raises or bonuses. But nothing could be more rewarding than shaping these new people.”

The Mahoneys, who are Catholic, nearly stopped having children after four when Joe, 45, a marketing vice president for Prudential Insurance, developed a serious health problem. They weren’t sure if he would be able to go back to work, but he eventually recovered. The children, he says simply, “are my blessings in life.”

The Mahoneys live in a six-bedroom, six-bath house on half an acre, with a pool and a hot tub. They like to sit around the pool at night and talk. Gail thinks that children learn a lot by growing up with many siblings. “They learn coping skills,” she says. “They’ve experienced methods of solving problems in a great big laboratory where everybody loves everybody else.”

The children do most of the housework, including a massive cleanup once a day. “We’re constantly using the electric broom,” says Katie, the eldest daughter. “We break them so often that Mom reassembled one from all the parts we had lying around.”

There are rules: No running in the hallway. No laggardly eating--a timer is set for anyone whose plate isn’t clean when the rest of the family is finished. No eating outside the kitchen. One hour of television a night, maximum. No playing the baby grand piano unless you are taking piano lessons. The second piano is fair game to all.

Gail watches the household budget carefully so that there will be money for such activities as skiing, which they all love. An ardent collector of coupons, she attacks the newspaper food section every Thursday with a pair of scissors. Her food bills are around $200 a week, even with two athletic sons who eat as much as she can feed them. “I stick with really nourishing stuff,” she says. “I don’t buy cookies. I buy boxes of 24 granola bars instead.” They go through at least seven gallons of milk each week.

At 45, Gail misses having an infant, but finds that the demands are just as great with older children. “I had to change a lot,” she says. “I’ve gotten a lot more lenient. I used to be a perfectionist, but I learned that you’re never really in control, even if you think you are. So I no longer even maintain that illusion. I take problems as they come and I like myself better. Having eight kids is a very humbling experience.”