Honestly that seems like a lot. I had 4 under 13mths when I started and while I have successfully cared for them, I wouldn’t do it again. It’s a lot to handle, especially if you get a super fussy one, which I did. I don’t have an assistant so what I had would feel similar to what you’ll have with an assistant. There were days when I literally was in tears after the last one left because I was so mentally and physically drained. For me, the hardest part was having some mobile when others weren’t, as well as when their feeding times all happened to fall at the same time and each child required my help to be fed. It might be easier to manage if you took up to age 2 and kept half the kids 1 and under and the other half 1 and over. I noticed a significant ease of stress as my older two age. They require much less one on one attention than my younger two and can now both mostly feed themselves which leaves my hands free to feed the younger ones. Only one of my parents ever expressed concern during the initial interview that I might be taking on too much with such a young group but she quickly changed her mind and there has never been a problem. I will say that having so many littles so young has made me feel a little burnout when it comes to infants.

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