What about their father? “Maybe the kids will meet him at 18, the donor,” Ms. Suleman said. “I don’t know.”

“She’s been fighting for our family for 10 years now,” said Amerah, who’s like a second mother to the eight, which is what everyone calls them. Like her siblings, she has a preternatural responsibility. Not many teenagers would put up with sleeping on a couch or accepting such choices. “No matter what, she’s never going to give up and I know that,” Amerah said.

The children themselves live largely insulated. “Most of my friends don’t know about the eight,” Amerah said. “When they were born, I was in elementary school. I would get questions about everything. But I would answer and say it’s my mom and my family. I was a little confused about that. I get that you’re interested, but I wouldn’t intrude on your family, why intrude on mine?”

Joshua, the 15-year-old gamer, said: “Some of my friends don’t have any siblings, so they want to know what it’s like. It’s nice to have someone to play with, but it can be overwhelming at times.”

Days begin at about 6:20 with a one-woman car pool — in a battered Ford E-350 Super Duty van she calls “the dump truck” — and caretaking. After school: cleaning, chores, bed by 8:30. Saturday family fun nights with vegan junk food and TV are a treat, but most outings aren’t as a group.

“She’ll get anxiety, everyone staring, so she’ll take whoever’s behaving the best. There’s ups and downs,” said Amerah, who hopes to be an orthopedic surgeon and have a large family of her own.

“Not 13, 14 kids,” though, she said. “Four. That’s big enough.”