Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar just got a new addition to their (already very, very large) family: their 18th child! And keeping with traditions (they name all their children starting with the letters J), here's Jordyn-Grace Makiya Duggar who came in at 7 pounds, 3 ounces:
"The ultimate Christmas gift from God," said Jim Bob Duggar, the father of the 18 children. "She's just absolutely beautiful, like her mom and her sisters."
Now, are 18 kids enough? Here's what Jim Bob has to say about it:
"We both would love to have more," he said.
Link | The Duggar Family Official Website (Now, do they change the name of their The Learning Channel reality show "18 Kids & Counting"?)
(Photo: Beth Hall/AP)
Previously on Neatorama: The Duggars are Expecting Their 18th Baby
Honestly, I hope all those kids turn out to be useless drug addicts.
They work to have this many children. They plan around Michelle's fertility. They could not financially support these children without the television shows and charitable donations. The parents don't manage the children, they manage a schedule that requires the older children to care for the younger children.
The girls are taught that they're only function is to marry and bear children for their church. The boys do not plan to go to college, but instead take jobs and start businesses that will not support their future large families.
Considering the over-population of Earth, these people's selfishness should find them paying the rest of us for each child they bear.
and not like "oh man im freakin out-- i'm seeing purple flying dinosaurs"
i mean like "what. the. hell."
And who pays for them?? They must have HUGE bills ...
It really boggles my mind though. Just how her uterus still functions. It can still hold a child, provide it with nutrition and not expell the child if she coughs or farts.Or that she has not had some sort of uterine prolapse.
That many children in one family indoctrinated into whatever weird version of religion they practice scares the bejeebers out of me.
I feel sorry for the children, and I'm willing to bet that for those kids whose ideological pendulums swing away from that of the family (and it WILL happen, this I guarantee), it's gonna swing far, and it's not gonna be pretty.
And I'm sorry, I find it hard to believe they can bring even a fraction of the attention that's needed to numbers 5-18. I don't find any of this wonderful or miraculous.
I think the main things that I do not relate to is their religious convictions and the home-schooling of their children. Neither of these things are really threatening but without knowing them it makes people think they are cultist or something odd.
You guys only hate on the Duggars because they're religious and they've built a family outside of the societal "norm".
Go back to your nanny-state-loving, religion-hating lives.
what scares me definitely is not the 18 children so far,i have nothing against them personally.
but what scares me is that each of those kids are trained, yes trained, to have at least eighteen more, and so on and so on, that scares me.
humans are so selfish.
So I bet it's going to go the same way as the parents... the kids are going to grow up wanting an asston of kids to fill some void.
:D
They think they're blessed? They're effing sick. The oldest children get screwed the most because they end up doing most of the parenting while mom & pop Duggar plan for more children. Stop boning and take care of the kids you already have. It's disgusting.
They work to have this many children. They plan around Michelle’s fertility. They could not financially support these children without the television shows and charitable donations. The parents don’t manage the children, they manage a schedule that requires the older children to care for the younger children.
Guess what asshole, the Druggers were taking care of their own long before the tv show came along, unlike you pampered little crybabies they DON'T take Gov Handouts
as for the rest of the "Enlightened" planet, FU, when you morons go to China and bellyache about the real population problem, I'll care.
jealousy is such a petty stupid thing, but Generation Selfish is right on time
Women are worth more than that. Breeding and drudgery are not the end goals of being female.
Donna- right on
We're not lost. There *are* people who, y'know, have a different opinion than yours. Shocking!
Not everyone on Neatorama is a narcissistic atheist with poor self image. Although I admit that they are highly overrepresented, especially in the comments section.
I am willing to bet that no one in this commentary thread, except for me, has met the Duggars and their kids in person. Until you do, STFU and go back to your 1.4 children and demographic death spiral.
Newton stood on the shoulders of giants... atheists stand on the shoulders of midgets.
Whatever happened to adopting kids?
"the staunchest promoters of the Quiverfull conviction and the patriarchy lifestyle, both of which hold that Christian couples should have as many children as God gives them, forgoing any form of family planning, as both a demonstration of their obedience and trust in God and as a militant method of demographic battle with nonbelievers."
Yes, Quiverfull, the movement that believes women's bodies aren't their own, but in fact sacrificial wombs used to build God's army.
Many of them also hold to extremely sexist ideas, and are against women being able to vote or hold office.
I need not do research. Your quote states just another persons negative opinion, no different than the millions out there. These people are not asking you to follow their religion. They are living their lives the way they want and they have a right to. Just like you have the right to post your opinion on here. Act like you live in America and let people have the freedom to do what they want. Where's the rule that says they have to live in a way that pleases you? And as far as the "sexist ideas", let Michelle complain about that....which I haven't heard her do yet. Otherwise, why do you care? If you are so "appalled" by them then don't watch the show. Unless someone is forcing you to do so.
I'm still waiting to see something on here against the Duggars that makes sense......blah, blah, blah......
they are morons
However, as a tokophobic with no interest in getting over it, I find these people rather baffling. Why would anyone want to put their body through that 18 times?
Seriously though, growing up, I knew a family of severely religious folks that stopped at 14 kids. It wasn't weird because they had fourteen children. It was freaking crazy because they had 14 socially-maladaptive, non-functional, thoughtless, zombie-drones for children, who were completely cut off from society due to their parent's belief in literalistic end-time religion. These kids were so screwed up that they thought it was normal for their parents to bruise their legs with a leather strap if they didn't answer within 10 seconds of their parents calling their name. They also believed that if someone called the police for this type of abuse, that the person would burn in hell because they were denying the "Will of God by interfering with the life situation that God gave them" -straight out of eldest daughters mouth as she told me I would burn in hell for not respecting her parents, one of "God's Laws".
That man lives for his wife; his whole life is her and their family. He puts them fist. And that's what most women want. She loves him totally and completely, too. This is a good thing.
These kids know they are loved simply for being; they were loved into existence. The parents never separate lovemaking from the obvious fruit of that love. The kids sure are doing better than some friends I know; their mothers had far less kids but did much more damage, mostly due to the prioritizing of self over children. The devastation can be found on countless shrink couches. It can mostly be traced back to believing that one is not loved, not because of what you do, but for who you are: your very existence.
As for their kids not going to college, it's the lie of the century to think that everyone must go into 6 figure debt and go to college to, what? Come out with a $50k job? So they don't go to college and get a $30k job; who's smarter? College has been dumbed down to the 13th grade; it's not for everyone and for real scholars, well, now they must go on to grad, law or med school to make any real money.
I love that a family like this will completely change the demographic of their entire neighborhood in just a few generations. While the rest contracept yourselves out of existence. These people are no threat to me whatsoever; completely self-sufficient, hard working, and loving. Not my religion, not my call to have so many children but it sure doesn't threaten me.
Honestly, I find it all very amusing because it does my head in to think that anyone would want to do this even once, and they're already talking about having another one. But it's certainly not my place, or anyone's to judge. At least they take care of the kids and aren't on welfare.
--
Anyhoo, this family disturbs me. The whole premise for them having this many kids is for part of the Quiverful movement, which is creepy enough in its own right. The kids all are home-schooled, and thankfully they are at least somewhat self-sufficient financially, but that just makes them seem even more insular and cult-like. I hadn't been to their site before, and it creeps me out how none of the boys are shown doing housework or childcare to help out. Never mind that they all have matching J names like Jim Bob-daddy, but no M names to match Mommy (or, you know, give them all unique names that don't match anyone).
Oh, and I just love the thinly-veiled racism in some of their supporters, e.g. anytime any mentions "demographics." They'll change the demographics of their area all by themselves! They'll keep white folk being produced, 'cos we're a'skeered of the darkies out-breeding us! Good job, folks. Sterling logic.
Oh, and ted, you've got a few facts mixed up in your post.
Such as "Not all Mormons are polygamists" or "even if they were polygamists, Mom wouldn't necessarily get a rest every couple of years" or maybe "it's not actually seed that Dad is spreading - it's sperm".
As with the expectation of unquestioning praise and validation for those who choose to join the military (based on a manufactured notion of blind patriotism as the height of honor), so there is this idea that anything anybody wants to do, if born of their religion, must also be viewed uncritically.
We all judge, all the time. We all have the faculty of unique discernment. And mine tells me that growing a profoundly insulated colony of submissive females and king-of-the-castle males based on a series of folktale missives is flat creepy.
And if someone wants to argue that my having 1.4 children and eschewing religion in favor of a personal preference for a searching, insecure reality over a fabricated peace is somehow inferior to the above scenario, we can have that discussion.
They react with anger because they are horrified that this family clings to this interpretation despite society's modern notions of progress. They don't hate children. They hate the idea of irresponsibly churning out and raising children with flawed ideals.
Unless their house runs on wind turbines... and they grow, spin, and weave their own cloth... and they live in an unheated hut... and they grow all their own food in their backyard... and they don't own one single car... and they wash all those diapers with water manually pulled from their own well... and they don't accept any charity... I don't want to hear about how they're "self-sufficient". This family has a detrimental impact on the rest of the world, whether they want to admit it or not.
Go through menopause already!
I just wonder what'll happen when Ma Quiver starts pushing through defective babies. Will they stop, or will they continue?
As for a war against heathens, all I can say about that is that they'd best prepare for a heck of a fight. :)
Yes, they have a lot of kids. Sure it is weird. Why should we hate them though? The fact is that these two people seem a better parent to all of their children then many people are to a single child. The Duggars can support all of their children. It may take supplemental income from a television show, but they still do it. I think it is a little much to judge these people for just being different. The fact is that I would bet that these children grow to be much "better" then most of the children coming out of "normal" families.
Creepy, yes, but she accepts it. That's her choice in a free country, and if that's fine with her, it's fine with me. No one is forcing you or I to live that way. I would have a problem with it if she were being forced into this, but there is no indication that she is, which is why I can't sit here and be overly critical of her. I would be very hypocritical if I were overly critical/hateful/judgemental in the manner that many here have been because many people do not approve of my being an atheist. However, they still respect that I choose to live my life free of religion. I'm only a biting dog when someone steps on my tail, y'know? Part of being in a free country is accepting that a lot of people are going to make different choices and have different beliefs. I don't feel that those beliefs (mine or anyone's) should be catered to for fear of offending another person, or shoved down anyone's throat, but I do strongly feel that we should live and let live. These people aren't hurting anyone. They are being true to themselves, and I honestly can't fault them for that.
Mrs. Duggar doesn't need anyone to save or enlighten her.
There seems to be this mistaken idea that because one is a sincere Christian who believes that children are a blessing, they are evil religious nutcases bent on manufacturing the army of God or whatever. That's crap.
Personally, I don't like children -- I'll probably never have any. But if someone else does, more power to them, as long as they do it without taxpayer cash, I don't really care. And why should you? What does anyone have to fear from the so-called "Jesus Freaks?" Sure, some of them can be annoying. Sure their churches can dominate a landscape... but do these people threaten you? Are they committing some harm against you?
No. Like the Duggars, most of them just go about their own lives, which, granted, are very different from our own, but in no way threatening. 18 kids? Before the days of birth control, that wasn't all that unusual anyway. Some of their kids may continue that way of life, others will probably rebel against it and go down some other path. It's a free country still. Leave it alone.
Pumping out children like litters of pups and then handing them off for your other "children" to raise is not noble, nor loving. It's not even remotely responsible.
I suspect some sort of mental illness issues are going on in Michelle Duggar's head. Perhaps feeding off the relgious fanaticism that inspires such mental (and social) instability.
I do not "hate" the Duggars, But I don't like what they are doing to their children - "Christian Army" children.
Get off your high horse, Churchy, you are no more tolerant or loving than the rest of us, you just package your hate a little differently.
Your second paragraph is also overly simplistic. They are not simply sincere Christians who believe children are a blessing. They really do feel it is their mission to generate as many followers as possible in order to further the goals of their religion, which in many cases are intolerant to others.
"Do these people threaten you? Are they committing some harm against you?" Well, on a macro level, it is people like these, in large numbers, that violated the constitutional provision that no state shall enact a law abridging a citizen's rights. This was in California, when Mormon and other religious activists used their beliefs (and money) to take away the right of gay people to marry. So a valid argument can be made that these people DO do harm to some. Not crap.
And as always, in a free country, everyone has a right to an opinion.
There are a lot of things there are no "sprecific laws" prohibiting, but that doesn't mean to do these things is wise or not harmful to others....
Having 18 kids is not wise, commendable, noble, nor something to be "proud" of. It is irresponsible, unnecessary, selfish and degrading to us all.
Unfortunately, people do have a right to be bigoted and racist so long as they stay within the law. And again, people do have a right to build cults and compounds so long as they are within the law.
There is no law against stopping this woman from breeding, and if you want that, then you might prefer somewhere like China, and their laws are nothing to be proud of either.
Personally, I don't feel that someone else having 18 kids degrades me. I could care less what they choose. I'm not the one having them or raising them. For them, it is wise, commendable and noble, even if we don't all necessarily agree. It is only irresponsible if they cannot support their children on their own. As for unecessary, again, that is your opinion against their own.
Point is, just because you don't approve, doesn't mean that it shouldn't happen, or that it's automatically wrong. According to your perspective, only your opinion/belief is acceptable.
pretty soon i'm going to have to make a "leave the duggars alone" video and put it up on youtube.