Danielle Busby Is Worried as Quints Get Older

As Parker, Riley, Hazel, Olivia and Ava Busby grow up, new challenges are emerging for their parents and OutDaughtered stars, Danielle and Adam Busby.

In the season 10 premiere of OutDaughtered, the couple, who share the 9-year-old quintuplets and 12-year-old Blayke, started to prepare the girls to go back to school — but they’re not necessarily all that interested.

“I do want the girls to be as prepared as possible going into third grade, but it is very hard to try to read a book with five kids all at the same time,” Adam, 41, admitted as he and Danielle, 40, wrangled all five girls to get in some reading practice.

“Reading is boring,” Olivia said as the sisters gathered and each took turns reading pages of a book about African animals with the help of their parents.

“It’s hard, especially in our case, because we do have quintuplets and they don’t get that one-on-one attention like Blayke did,” Danielle said in a confessional. “I would be doing it for five hours a day. That’s just not realistic.”

As the girls traded off pages, Ava’s turn eventually came around, and she started to struggle. Danielle encouraged her to “sound it out” and “break it up” as she hit a word she didn’t know, but the moment ultimately stuck with the mother of six.

“Some of the quints just kind of still struggle a little bit, going from COVID kindergarten to this huge school was really hard. So we’re still trying to figure that out,” Danielle said as she grew emotional in a confessional. “But you know, Ava, I think, wants it to just be like her and mom because she just gets frustrated with sisters around.”

“I’m kind of getting emotional. But honestly, really reading just this book about African animals and stuff, I mean, we have an idea who’s behind and I feel so bad because it has taken us a long time to discover that, but I know they can do it,” she added.

As Ava struggled with a word, Riley leaned over, trying to get a glimpse of the page. This prompted Ava to tell her to “stop it.” Olivia then asked, “Can I help her?”

Danielle described Olivia as having “the biggest heart and sweetest soul when it comes to seeing someone can’t figure something out.”

“She doesn’t want anybody to be behind or suffer or not get something. She wants to help,” Danielle said, adding that she’s “so proud” of the girls, who have “grown so much,” but she’s still feeling a lot of mom guilt.

“When it comes to reading, it’s like, we really need to dedicate one-on-one time with that. But with a family our size, it is really difficult. And so Adam and I have kind of talked about, like, what do we do?” she reflected.

Later in the episode, Danielle and Adam took the quintuplets to meet their teachers ahead of starting third grade, and Danielle took the opportunity to let the teacher, Jessica Sellards, know about her concerns with some of the girls.

“We have a hard time with some of them, reading, writing,” Danielle said. “I mean they all learn differently, but some of them are just… [they] struggle.”

The girls’ teacher comforted Danielle as she told her that the school has a “brand new phonics program” that’s “going to help with a lot of gaps for a lot of kids.”

In a confessional, Danielle shared that other moms of “high order multiples” have told her that around third grade is when you can start to see potential learning disabilities for “extremely premature” babies, as the quintuplets were.

“We thought quintuplet babies and toddlers and all that were hard. That was not,” she admitted of the new challenges that are emerging for their family. “As they’re getting older, it’s so much more challenging because they’re not the same. And the older they get, the more spread out they are. But it’s really hard.”

She continued, “And so I think that’s part of how I learned that the best thing you can do is be present with them and just say like, ‘I don’t say like what to tell you right now, but I love you and we’re going to figure this out.’ ”

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OutDaughtered airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. ET/PT on TLC.