I’m a mum of 12 – my ‘just in case bag’ is a game changer for family outings during the summer holidays, thank me later

A mum-of-12 has revealed the “just in case” trick she uses when organizing her family for a day out.

Zoe Sullivan, 46, husband Ben, 49, and their twelve children make up one of the largest families in the country.

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The couple are parents to Elisabeth, 19, Olivia, 17, Noah, 14, Evangeline, 12, Tobias, 11, Agnes, seven, Joseph, five, Florence, two, and two sets of twins – Charlotte and Isabelle, 16, and Leah and Erin, eight.

The brood live in a six-bedroom house in Burghead, Moray, where they regularly document their busy lives on your YouTube channel.

And they are already enjoying more time with their family since the start of the summer holidays.

Zoe admitted they spent the first week “relaxing” due to the bad weather.

She added: “I always find that it takes at least a week for everyone to relax and calm down from the hustle and bustle of everyday life at the start of the holidays.”

But with so many kids to entertain, they also quickly enjoyed a family trip to their favorite adventure park – Landmark Forest Adventure Park in Carrbridge, Inverness-shire.

Not surprisingly, it takes a lot of effort and planning on a day trip with 14 people to get ready in the morning and a plentiful picnic and supplies to pack.

The Sullivan brood’s snacks take up an entire travel trolley – complete with large plastic tubs containing sausage rolls, pizza slices and fruit, as well as Tesco packets of cocktail sausages, chicken poppers, chicken straws and chicken sausages.

Zoe and her daughter Isabelle also prepare rolls and sandwiches for the whole family.

Multipacks of chocolate chip cookies, yogurts, packets of Haribo, three jars of Pringles, five bags of chips and 18 cupcakes complete the picnic essentials

Zoe says: “I know it sounds like a lot of food, but don’t forget, it’s 14 people.

“They’ll be running around all day, constantly hungry, so we need lots of food.”

But it’s her “just in case” bag that the supermummy considers her true everyday must-have.

She says: “When we go on a big day trip, we take a ‘just in case’ bag because believe me, there have been many incidents over the years where we haven’t had the ‘just in case’ stuff with us. and it always bit us in the ass.

In her attempt to prepare for any possible mishaps, Zoe packs sunscreen, a change of clothes for her younger children, and cozy sweaters in a large canvas bag.

She also has sunscreen, Gaviscon, diaper bags, cotton wool, lip balm, pens and tissues stored in Florence’s diaper bag.

She said, “Because you never know, this is just something that sits in my diaper bag.

“I also have a first aid kit at the bottom.

“We have bite spray and forehead products, an inhaler, plasters, paracetamol, ibuprofen, more tissues, some Savlon and some Calpol.

“This is always in my diaper bag at all times, wherever we go. We take our diaper bag most places with us, just in case.

“I’m a just-in-sure person, but a lot of it is because we’ve gone through years and years of ‘we should really take this next time we go because we forgot this.’

“So it’s just a lot of practice. A lot of practice means everything is easier now because we know what we need to have and, believe me, it’s easier to have things with you than to go to a store to buy them.”