While many students make plans for the weekend without giving a second thought to their parents’ schedules, others have to make sacrifices to help care for their siblings.
Seniors Max Moreno and Chris Cerean, as well as junior Victoria Cerean, are among those students. Each has seven siblings.

“We’re all pretty different,” Moreno said. “Me and my older brother have similar interests, [but] my little brothers are into art. So before, when I didn’t have my own car and we were asking our parents for rides or something, they’d be like ‘Well, your little brothers want to go to the art store,’ or something, and I’d be like, ‘Well, that’s kinda boring,’ and would need rides to hang out with my friends. But it was like ‘Well, you can’t go because I need a ride,’ or ‘You can go an hour early and just wait by yourself because I don’t feel like driving you around.’”

Moreno, 17, is the fourth of eight children. The oldest, his sister Cindy, is 24 years old, and the youngest, Ariana, is 2 years old.  He says he relates most to his second-oldest brother, Jonny, 19. The age gap between him and the twin boys, Daniel and David, 13, that follow him doesn’t help the already separate interests. Moreno helps take care of toddler Ariana when his parents are unavailable.

“Whenever my parents go to work, I just have to watch her,” Moreno said. “It gets pretty bad. She [will get] sick and [be] throwing up, and I don’t wanna clean that up. But for the most part it’s not that bad.”

Chris and Victoria, the second and third children of eight, share similar experiences, taking on partial parental roles in their household. Chris is the oldest boy at the house since the oldest of the eight siblings, Nick, left for college. Victoria is able to share her role with her 13-year-old sister Adina.

“We share a room so we usually know most things about each other,” Victoria said. “We have to keep the 6-year-olds, [Faith and Grace] in line. Me and her? [Adina] We got each other.”

Within their parental roles, Victoria and Chris have become part of the behind-the-scenes work at Christmas time.

“When I was younger, our parents would make sure to hide presents from us, so we’d be surprised,” Chris said. “But as more kids came along, the older guys, we’d obviously know where they hid them, so now we’re part of the people who give presents. Me and my brother, and Victoria, too, we watch instead of getting presents. It’s their turn. It’s fun, we watch movies.”

While the Cereans throw big birthday parties and celebrate most holidays in a big manner with their large extended family, the Morenos choose to have more intimate birthday celebrations.

“It was my brother’s 21st birthday,” Moreno said. “He’s in college, so he came back and so did my other brother. We were all fighting. I think my mom ended up crying. My little sister ended up crying because my dad made a joke about something and my mom took it offensively. It was pretty bad, but it was still fun. That was the worst case scenario. Normally we just have a cake at my house. Usually on the weekend because my parents work every day.”

While they all play different instruments, the Cereans share a passion for music. The older kids are or have been in the Raider Band, and the younger kids have already expressed interest.

“My little brother, I think he’s gonna play the drums, probably copy what I did,” Chris said. “We’re all musically inclined. We have a piano in our house. They all go on it and mess around. They’re already on their way to becoming musicians.”

As parental figures, Victoria and Chris try to set a scholarly example for their younger siblings.

“I get the pressure of Nick and Chris,” Victoria said. “I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be worse for [the younger kids], because there’s gonna be more to live up to. They see how much we’ve accomplished and how much fun we’re having while doing some of this, so they become fascinated to do it too.”

While academics are important, Chris, Victoria and Max also make sure to show their younger siblings the fun that comes with being in high school.

“I let them know that it’s fun too,” Chris said. “It’s not always studying and stressing out. You got to have a good time.”

All three students admit that while having bigger families makes their life more hectic, they can’t imagine a life without all their siblings.

“When my two older brothers left for college, I was pretty sad,” Moreno said. “You spend so much time with someone, they’re pretty much my best friends. If I was an only child, or had less siblings, it wouldn’t be as fun.”