Photo recall: 'Easier than today'

There wouldn't have been much chance to relax and enjoy Mother's Day for mum-of-10 Sally Sinden, shown here serving up breakfast to husband Paul and their eight oldest children.

It was 1959 when this photo was taken of the Sinden family breakfast table in New Lynn, Auckland.

There was the oldest, Mary, then twins Paul and Gail. They were followed by Felicity, then another set of twins, Joseph and Theresa. After them in quick order came another set of twins, Louise and Linda, who were only 10-and-a-half months younger.

For a while, Sally Sinden had four children aged under 1-year-old.

It was about this time that the local Catholic parish priest, somewhat cheekily, asked Sally when the next baby was coming along. She was not amused - and told the priest he could mind his own business.

Not much later, she had another daughter, Kathryn, and then, finally, the youngest, Linda.

The boys, Paul and Joseph, shared a room in the house. The eight girls all slept in a big dormitory extension - eight beds lined up in a row, like an army barrack, with a piano at one end of the room and verandah on which the dozens of nappies hung to dry.

Sally - a former Wellington representative netballer, A-grade tennis player, wartime naval auxiliary member and one of the first women to graduate from Massey University - would have needed all of that to run the big West Auckland household.

She would be up at four or five in the morning, ironing shirts and school uniforms, and preparing breakfast for her brood. The kids usually got porridge; husband Paul got a cooked breakfast, with extra bacon rashers that he'd share with the younger children.

Paul also chipped in with housework: he too was up early, washing all the nappies in the old wringer washing machine, before heading into town for his job as general manager of Poultrymen Co-op, which supplied eggs to stores around New Zealand.

The kids each had their assigned chores: twin Paul (obscured on the left) remembers he was responsible for cleaning the bathroom and toilet - yes, that's just one bathroom for a family of 12. Paul put what he learned to good use: today, he runs his own cleaning and contracting company, Civic Contractors, with 120 employees.

Theresa - she's the blonde cherub at front left - is now an artist on the North Shore. "Mum once said that she felt women have it harder now than they did back then, because at least motherhood was a recognised profession," Theresa recalls. "Now, you've got to do four or five jobs and bring in an income to be thought of as a successful woman."