Amber de la Motte of TLC’s new special Big Family, Big City has more in common with the Duggar Family than having (and homeschooling) many children– she also shares some controversial beliefs on what her children should do in life.
As The Ashley previously told you, ‘Big Family, Big City’ follows Amber and Marc de la Motte and their 11 children, who are playing music together and adjusting to city life after relocating from San Diego, California, to Harlem, New York. The de la Mottes are described as a “conservative family of 13,” with children ranging in age from six months to 22 years old.
In a clip from the new TLC special, which debuts February 25, Amber tells daughters Pearl and Naomi– two of the de la Motte’s six daughters– what she wants for them in life, as well as who.
“I want you to have a husband who would want to have a family,” Amber tells the girls, before adding that her daughters’ future spouses should also be interested in “providing” for them.
As the scene continues. Amber provides some more clarity as to what exactly she hopes her children’s futures look like.
“I do feel that our boys should be providers when they get married,” Amber says. “I really want my girls to prepare to be wives and mothers. You will find your fulfillment being a wife and mother.”
While 16-year-old Naomi tells her mom that she does want a husband who will provide for her, she says she also wants to pursue a career in film, specifically producing music scores for films, according to People. Naomi’s sister Pearl, 21, reveals that she shares similar goals.
“Just ‘cause I have a family doesn’t mean I can’t perform [music] still … ,” Pearl tells her mom. “I wanna play music … .”
Later in the clip, Pearl tells viewers that when she eventually does have family, she doesn’t want to put aside her music career “for the sake of the kids.” She also admits that she finds it “a little bit strange” that her mom would encourage her to drop her music career after having a baby, considering that the de la Motte family relocated across the country for her to pursue an education in music.
Although Amber replies to Pearl’s comment with, “absolutely,” she continues to emphasize how important she believes it is for a woman to have a large presence in the home.
“There’s a lot of things you can do from home when you’re ready to start a family that would help support what your husband’s doing,” Amber says.
Amber goes on to tell viewers that if one of her daughters ultimately decides to pursue a career in music in lieu of starting a family, she would feel as if she had failed as a mother.
“At a core level, that’s a woman’s nature,” Amber adds. “And I know that’s not politically correct to say that, but I kind of feel that way.”
At the moment, only one the de la Motte children is married– eldest child Josiah de la Motte, who tied the knot with his girlfriend (a fellow musician) in December 2024.
In a video posted to the de la Motte family’s Instagram page in October, the family shared that Josiah would be graduating from the Manhattan School of Music in the spring and preparing to apply to law school “so that he can support a family.” The post also stated that Josiah was working as a security guard in order to “pay for an apartment for his bride-to-be.”
‘Big Family, Big City’ premieres Tuesday, February 25 on TLC. Watch a clip from the special below and click here for more details on the de la Motte family.
@tlctv Amber’s daughters are talented musicians, but will they need to give up their career ambitions to become wives and mothers? Follow their journey on the new special BigFamilyBigCity, Tuesday at 10/9c on TLC.
RELATED STORY: TLC’s New Special ‘Big Family, Big City’ Introduces Viewers to the de la Motte Family of 13: Watch the First Trailer
(Photos: TLC; Instagram; TikTok)
15 Responses
Here for the feninist melt downs 😀
and there it is. another culty family and probably hiding S/A too.
Can we please stop giving funndies platforms to spread their bullshit???
I do not get why the parents have every single child playing a string instrument at such an intensive level that they moved cross-country to facilitate their being able to audition for the Juilliard pre-college program if the explicit goal that for none of them to continue on that trajectory into adulthood.
The oldest hasn’t even graduated from his conservatory but is preparing apply to law school with no motivation given besides preparing to support a large family (mentioning that he’s working while in school, no mention made of his fiancé/wife working outside the home). The girls similarly are on a track that leads towards a professional musical career while being told they shouldn’t enter the workforce in the first place.
It’s: (Support your parents financially. Be a shick that gets us the gigs and opens doors.)Bring money into the household as we call it an investment into your future.
(While in reality, Father’s income isn’t enough) and these “opportunities” to be a “musical ministry” bring in money, not for the family! For god!
BUT of course
Put it down immediately when you marry, it’s ungodly. A comfortable single income couple out on their own with only a base religious homeschool education is attainable!
Live and let live but if birthing and raising kids was “at the core of every woman’s nature” there would be no such thing as infertility.
Also, why do people like this keep getting reality tv shows?!
There are more ways to raise children then birthing them yourself, so your argument of Women being infertile meaning that we aren’t meant to birth and raise children doesn’t make any sense, and is HIGHLY offensive. It is in a women’s nature to want to be motherly, and those women who do not feel that way often make the best aunts, so that is in itself kind of a form of Mothering. Some people can’t stand kids, and it’s probably due to their own mental health issues/sensory issues/childhood trauma – those people shouldn’t have them. But in nature, women were made to be mothers and take care of things, or society literally wouldn’t exist.
I find your comment that not liking children is due to mental illness HIGHLY offensive. Women don’t have to like children and it doesn’t need to be due to trauma or mental illness. It just is what it is and doesn’t have to be any deeper.
As a mentally ill person with 5 children. I don’t care for this comment above. My two oldest children are at great colleges. Always on the deans list. One of them was pulled to sit in with the Minnesota Department of Health. My 3 younger kids do well in school also. They’re all “good” people. If I didn’t like kids because of “mental illness.” They probably wouldn’t function well. Being abused so badly actually makes me more sympathetic and I really watch what I say.
People do have a right to not want to have/be around children. I really don’t think it’s a big deal in the grand scheme of things. Simple, don’t hang around them.
Oh please. This woman doesn’t have any motherly instincts to nurture. These families are all the same, the older kids raise the younger kids and all the kids probably get a tenth of the parents attention that a two kid household child would get. If she was truly nurturing in a way that having a large family brings some people a lot of joy. She would foster or adopt. Instead, she’s trying to repopulate NYC with her vag and brainwash her kids to do the same.
So I’m mentally ill because I don’t want or need children? Ok … this is one of the most offensive comments I’ve ever read
Please stop being offended for other people, it’s rude af, far more rude than whatever weird interpretation you took from Amen’s words. Amen didn’t say anything at all offensive, but you did and should jump down off that soap box before someone kicks it out from under you.
Being motherly is not a human nature for all human females-we know this to be a fact. It is the same in nature as it is humans. Not all females are born with an instinct to be motherly, caring, etc.., again, we know this is a fact. The reasons why some females are not born with such traits vary as widely as the females themselves. It is not at all insulting to point this fact out, it’s true.
What you misinterpreted, because you just HAD to be offended by something not even remotely offensive, was Amen saying that if such traits were *always* at the core of every woman’s nature, most of the issues women have with being mothers simply wouldn’t exist. But, we know it is NOT at the core of every woman’s nature, so, Amber saying this about women is just her speaking out of her ass based on some misguided belief that this is all women are good for. Your comments simply reiterate what the idiot Amber de la Motte said, and you’re both absolutely wrong (both scientifically and, in the general “you need to get a clue” sense).
May all 6 of the daughters rebel. May they pursue careers if they wish and not have double-digits of children to birth and support. The girls don’t have to get married at all, or they could (gasp) marry a woman!
My father came from a double-digit family. Mostly boys, but one of the daughters practically raised the last two children. She had no childhood (nor did any of the other kids). It wasn’t fair to any of them.
In other words she thinks nothing more of her daughter’s to be anything but a baby factory and trad wife who isn’t allowed to have opinions or dreams of their own. So be at the door with your hair curled, makeup on, white frilly apron and be holding a dinner plate at 5pm on the dot and not minute later and remember to smile constantly to show how happy your husband makes you. I’m sure the male children get treated very differently. And the girls are treated like mindless servants. It makes me sick honestly.
And this is a great example of why I told everyone they should boycott this garbage that tlc and sharp has been platforming. It’s propaganda. This is what’s been going on in our country for years. Norman Rockwell anyone? When they wanted to push women back out of the workforce after WW 2 they pushed that trad family of the 50s American dream bs to open the jobs for the returning soliders. That’s just one example. But the point is don’t support this blatant nonsense.