Karen and Deon Talk "Doubling Down With The Derricos" Season 3

A couple that proudly showcases their ever-expanding family is offering advice to a celeb mom who was trolled on social media.

Source: Doubling Down With the Derricos / TLC

Karen and Deon Derrico are continuing to let America meet their beautiful BIG family on “Doubling Down with the Derricos” that’s in its third season airing Tuesdays at 10 PM ET/PT on TLC.

“Doubling Down” of course follows Karen and her husband Deon as they navigate life with fourteen kids, including four sets of naturally conceived multiples. Things are never easy but, with the kids getting older, Deon and Karen are facing a whole new set of challenges, including a fifteen-year-old’s quest for independence and a driver’s license, eleven-year-old and ten-year-old twins developing their first crushes, four-year-old triplets starting preschool, plus potty training, a trip to Disney, new health issues and more.

Source: Doubling Down With the Derricos / TLC

In the midst of all the regular chaos of raising children, the Derricos are also on the brink of a big decision: moving cross-country to South Carolina to be closer to Karen’s extended family and her Southern roots. No matter what lies ahead, the Derricos will face it together this season, doubling down on all the love and fun it takes to raise this unique family.

As this season continues, Karen and Deon chatted with BOSSIP about their ever-expanding family, what it “takes” to parent 14 children, and they offered advice to KeKe Wyatt as she prepares to welcome baby number 11.

What does it take to raise 14 children? I imagine it takes patience and a lot of time…

Deon Derrico: The first key, for me, is love. Because without the love, we wouldn’t have the endurance. The love makes the job not feel like a job. That’s for me. And I think having a clear vision as to what you want and where to expect for a family, and especially family as large as we are. I think that vision both Karen and I established when we first met, and we just continue with that vision. And that vision is what has brought us here with the way we run our house, with the way Karen homeschools, the way you see us often through many of the episodes. You’ll watch us teach our children, and talk to them. And they’re part of everything because these were key points that we had spoken on prior to having any children.

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What do you all think about KeKe Wyatt getting backlash as she prepares to welcome her 11th child? She recently received negative comments after revealing that her unborn child has a genetic disorder.

Deon Derrico: I love talking to large parents, large families. I have always loved talking to large families and large parents. And it’s a really funny, the thing that I always hear them say is how blessed they are having so many children. And then when I talk to people who have one or two children, maybe even three children, including my mother, GG, an oftentimes they’ll say they wished they had more children. And so, to answer your question regarding KeKe, first of all, live your best life. All families are great but large families rock, and I’ve always felt like that even before becoming a rocking large family.

But on top of that, I have to say, you never regret having too many children. But you, for sure, I’ve seen it across the board, many people regretting not having enough children. So my best advice to her is to live your best life. Everyone else has done theirs.

Karen Derrico: So I actually had reached out to KeKe. She and I tweeted, and I was letting her know [that] it’s all good. It’s so much love with large family. Don’t listen to them. And she ended up retweeting it, and thanking me.

And then when the story broke about her diagnosis of her unborn child, I actually reached back out to her again, because, like her, I went through that scenario of having that. And it’s a lot, it’s a lot when you’re doing this in the public eye.

But the thing about it is she’s being open to her fans, she’s being open to everyone. And the thing about it is if you can help one parent, one person that’s going through it, all those other negative comments, they don’t even matter. Because half the time the people that are making them are bitter. They’re angry, they have their own issues, and they’re living their life through her. It’s not fair. So, definitely, it’s everything that [Deon] Derrico said. Live your life, live your best life, as everyone says, but you can’t worry about what others are doing. You surely can’t. And I’m not. We’re definitely not.

Deon Derrico: Not at all. We’re not going to let someone else project their energy, their jealousy, their issues. It’s a plethora of possibilities of what it is, right? They’re jealous, envious. They wish they were us. Because they wish they were the person that they’re looking at. And we’ve seen it across the board in other situations or scenarios. It don’t necessarily have to do with a large family. But people would tend to project what they feel about you or your situation onto you. And it’s very, very important for us as the individuals to not allow that negativity to become a part of our world.

April 2 was ” National Love Your Kids Day.” I know you love so much about them, but what do you love most about your 14 kids?

Karen Derrico: Empathy…

Deon Derrico: The empathy.

Karen Derrico: You have to love it. We’re constantly entertained. We don’t have to go to the movie theater or turn the radio on. They put on a full show, girl. So the theatrics and all, and it’s the empathy, and just going through things. And we, as parents, are trying to be as appropriately transparent as we can be. And I say that because you want to talk to your children and let them know as much as they can, but you want to make sure that it’s appropriate too. So I just love the empathy that they share with that. And definitely I think it would be that, empathy, love and…

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Deon Derrico: The togetherness. As she just said, the empathy, their willingness to want to work through it, because we understand that problems and challenges are going to happen all the time. We just saw that on the Oscars the other day, right? We teach our children the proper way to work through differences. And that’s what you will continuously see within our family. The proper way to work through differences, because life is filled with challenges. That’s just something we can’t get around. So we have to learn how to navigate through those many challenges. And so you’ll see this being echoed throughout all of our seasons, all of our episodes, because it’s really our core value on family and togetherness. And as you teach the children about family, and togetherness, and that love, that will transcend into the community, and to the city, and the world, and learn. So it’s very important that we maintain these types of standards.

Let us know what we can expect in season three of “Doubling Down with the Derricos.” 

Deon Derrico: There’s a lot. You going to see a lot of things regarding mental health, not mental illness, but mental health. Mental health doesn’t mean mental illness, and a lot of people think that it does. We all have mental health, right? Everyone has mental health. And it’s how you properly get help, or seek counsel, or have someone to lean on, and…

Karen Derrico: Self-care…. Lots of self-care. I have a lot of mom guilt. It’s just the little things. I tell the joke, and it’s so bad because [Deon] Derrico…when he’s going to take a shower, he locks the door. I go and take a shower, the door is unlocked. And I’m always afraid. “Oh my God, what if they need me?! And I just locked…” And my son, Dallas, came in the bathroom one day, I’m in the shower, he’s like, “Look, Mommy, I finally got Michael Jackson’s spin.” And I’m like, “Yeah, could that have waited?”

So little things like that, [I’m] just going to take care of myself. So you’ll see that this season that I finally take that giant leap and focus on myself. And it really felt good. So, that’s my message to everyone out… And especially mothers with 1 child, or 14, or in between. You need to take care of yourself because you’re really no good to anyone else.

Are YOU watching “Doubling Down with the Derricos”??? Take a look at what happens when Deon starts potty training the triplets.

Catch an all-new episode of “Doubling Down with the Derricos” tonight at 10/9 C on TLC!

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