And Baby Makes . . . 19????

Ok, I admit it. I have this sort of freaky fascination with the Duggar Family. You’ve heard of the Duggars, right? The family that just welcomed their 17th child? Yeah, you read that right, these people have 17 kids – all of them biological. Mama Michelle has spent something like 11 years of her life pregnant, and she wants MORE KIDS. Um, Michelle, me thinks perhaps you might have a bit of a problem. Like maybe you are addicted to making babies. Really, 17? I read that her doctor “ordered” her to stop having babies about a half a dozen kids ago, but apparently she didn’t listen. I’m thinking instead of a gyno, this woman needs a psychiatrist to figure out why she needs so many kids!

So, you might wonder, how do 2 parents raise 17 kids? Easy, they make the older kids raise the younger ones. Each older kid has one or two “buddies” that they are responsible for taking care of. Nice, huh? Plus, the kids are responsible for cleaning the house. The 15 year old daughter has to make lunch every day (for the whole heard) while the 17 year old girl cooks dinner – every night. The family home schools (sure, don’t let the kids out into the world where they could see that not every 12 year old is expected to dress, feed, bath, and baby-sit a couple of toddlers every day). The older kids spend the mornings teaching the little ones. Ok, so with all these older kids taking care of the little ones, and cleaning the house, and the two servant girls doing all the cooking, what exactly is Mama Duggar doing all day (ok, I’m not going for the cheap, obvious joke here!)? The only thing I’ve found that she actually does (besides act as over-seer) is facilitate “financial freedom” seminars. Yeah, apparently despite having more kids than sense, the Duggars are debt free. They recently built a house using their little angels as unpaid laborers. Really, little kids hanging dry wall and swinging hammers.

So, what’s my problem with all of this? Yeah, of course I’ve got a problem with it. As a single parent with just 2 kids, I see how hard it is to spend time with both and to give each of them the amount of attention they crave. So, how in the world can two parents possibly do this for 17 kids? How do you ever spend one-on-one time with a child when there are 16 others competing for your attention? And what does it do to a child to be just one of the heard? People who adopt children from overseas worry about the fact that the children don’t have individual care-givers, and that they don’t get to bond with a parent. How is having 17 kids with only 2 parents really much better than an orphanage? Ah, but the little ones do get individual attention – from their buddies.

That’s my other problem with this – kids being forced to act as de facto parents for younger siblings. How fair is it to a pre-teen to make him/her have total responsibility for one or two toddlers? When do the big kids get a chance to be kids? And who is nurturing them while they are nurturing the littles? Not to mention the amount of housework these kids are expected to do. A 15 year old being forced to cook lunch for 19 people every day sounds like a violation of child labor laws! It’s just wrong on so many levels.

So, the Duggars feel that kids are a gift from God, and they want as many gifts as God is willing to give them. And, hey, while they’re at it, they aren’t turning down gifts from anyone else, either. These two media whores have sold their story to anyone and everyone. They brag about being debt-free (isn’t bragging a little “flashy” for such a “simple” family?), but they never mention the “assistance” they got from The Learning Channel (one of two networks to do specials about the family) to build their house. They say that they dress the way they do as so as not to draw attention to themselves, but they jump in front of a camera every chance they get, turning their kids into a bunch of freaks growing up in a freak-show.

It’s sad, it’s disgusting, and it’s like a train wreck – I just can’t look away. Mark my words, one of these days, we are going to see Duggar neighbors on TV saying “Little Joshua/John-David/Jill/Jessa/Jinger/Joseph/Josiah/Joy-Anna/Jedidiah/Jeremiah/Jason/James/Justin/Jackson/Johannah/Jennifer* was always such a sweet child. I’d never would have expected him/her to become an axe-murderer.”


*Yes, all 17 kids names start with the letter “J”. It just adds to the freakiness.