Living on the road is difficult enough, especially if you’re doing it with a lot of people. From making food to going to the toilet and showering, it can get burdensome, making people long to be in their warm and comfortable home. It’s especially demanding to have comfortable sleeping arrangements, with beds sometimes being hard, there not being enough space to lie down comfortably, and others snoring not too far away.
TikToker Amber de la Motte showed off how her family of 12 sleeps in an Airstream travel trailer, sparking discussions in various communities online.
More info: TikTok Part 1 | TikTok Part 2
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
Amber de la Motte shows off her family's sleeping arrangements for their half-week long trip
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"How we sleep in the trailer. This is where the little girls sleep"
"It used to be a table, but it converts into a bed."
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"Here's the couch. And Noah’s sleeping on it. Here's where Enoch sleeps"
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"Here's Elijah. He has a top bunk. Down here are Pearl and Naomi"
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"Here’s where Josiah sleeps. This is where Moses sleeps"
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"This is where Mommy and Daddy sleep"
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
In a previous video, Amber shows the audience more of their trailer, from their kitchen to their bathroom facilities
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"Hi guys, I'm gonna give you an Airstream tour"
"So in the front part of the Airstream there's a bedroom, it's a queen bed and it has some storage on the side, storage on the top and we have a little bed for the baby."
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"Here's the front door. And then over here we have a little table that turns into a bed and a TV"
"On the other side we have a little couch that we can also use as a bed and we have storage on top."
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"There's a little sink here, microwave, and our stove which is full of cereal and fruit"
"On this side is the fridge. It's not huge but stores frozen fruit, and milk and stuff."
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
"Up here is a bunk bed and down here is another queen bed"
"On this side we have a bathroom, the shower, the toilet and the sink."
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
Watch the original videos here:
Amber de la Motte is happy with how her family fits in the Airstream comfortably, but the internet has second thoughts about it
The video that went viral was a TikTok showing how Amber's 10 children, she, and her husband fit in their trailer to sleep. The beds come in various shapes and sizes, from 3 girls sleeping on a table that converts to a bed, to bunk beds, to several of the children sleeping on the floor.
It seems that for the duration of this trip, two of the children, young Enoch and teenage Josiah, had to sleep on the trailer’s floor for some time. It isn’t very easy to see whether there is a mat or something soft underneath them, but it doesn’t seem so at first glance.
This is all detailed in a series of videos on her Tiktok, from a San Francisco - San Diego trip, which is about 500 miles (805 km), to their moving trip from their previous home in San Francisco to their New York City home in Harlem. They took the latter trip also using the Airstream trailer, which would come out to about 2905 miles (4676 km) by car.
She mentions that all 12 of them living in a 30-foot (9 m) trailer isn’t perfect, but at the same time, it’s more comfortable than living in a tent, as they have AC, heating, and a fridge. In a comment on one of the videos, Amber humorously comments that it’s safer in the trailer than sleeping with bears outside, as she once was camping in Yosemite when a bear walked by her tent.
The family is also incredibly talented, with 9 of their kids playing various string instruments. It appears that at least 7 of them have perfect pitch and they frequently perform various covers, such as Harry Styles' As It Was, performed by the children as a string quintet.
This NYC move was apparently necessary as 7 kids auditioned for Juilliard, and 3 of them were accepted to it. They felt that it was wise to move their entire family, as there are many highly rated music schools in the area for the rest of their kids. For the uninitiated, Juilliard is a prestigious music school in NYC, with a 7.4% acceptance rate, according to 2021 data.
They are also an intensely religious family, showing their devotion in many of their videos. Nevertheless, Amber has spoken candidly about their experiences with the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church they had attended for 15 years.
They took on more moderate views after leaving the church, which made all the women attending wear skirts and considered rock music “evil.” They ultimately left the church because pastors of IFB churches that were tried for abusing minors started showing up in their church.
Image credits: @thehappycaravan
So what’s the buzz all about, then? Well, although many expressed how cool and cute it is for them to be traveling all together like they show on their social media, not everyone took kindly to some of the children sleeping on the floor. People were shook up and said that it’s too much for children to be sleeping on hard floors without any padding.
In Amber’s defense, the sleeping spots get rotated between the children and parents, but Amber can’t give up the bed, as she has to nurse the youngest, Moses. A later video addressed viewers' concerns, saying that Enoch now has a blow-up mat to sleep on. Amber further mentions that Enoch gave up his spot on the bed for his sister, Melody, as they forgot her fold-up mat.
Folks on the internet pointed out that Josiah, also sleeping on the floor, was glossed over, further not being satisfied with the treatment of Enoch. Many were outraged at this, but others also said that sleeping on the floor is no big deal and that they are only just traveling like this for a short time, among other things.
Another family on social media, Knorpp and South, lives in an RV when going on trips, having lived in one permanently for a long time in the past. They solve the issues of their kids sleeping by having a separate bunk bedroom, which sleeps 7 of their 9 kids at once. They’ve also installed a separate AC for the room, as it does get hot and humid with so many people sleeping in a small space. Two other kids sleep on a big couch in the kitchen.
It is possible to sleep a large family in a trailer or RV. It just takes a lot of work to set it up and adapt it to your family’s needs. The camping world blog has suggestions and advice for big families that want to travel comfortably, emphasizing the importance of good beds and other comfort facilities when traveling.
Amber's original sleeping arrangement video received more than 11 million views and more than 1 million likes. But the 14 thousand commenters were divided, with many disagreeing with their sleeping arrangements, calling them unfair and sad. There was another just as vocal camp saying that they were in love with the setup and would’ve loved to live like this as kids. What are your thoughts? Have experiences of traveling together with many people? Share them in the comments!
Comments were torn with people being upset with the parents for treating their children unfairly and others saying they are in love with the idea
