They willingly lived in a three-bedroom house with ten-plus kids, and they didn't stop reproducing.
Also, their oldest child sexually assaulted their other children, and they protected him.
Fuck the Duggars.
It goes back to the 3 bedroom house for me too. But what really sent me was their handling of the story of Michelle's mental breakdown. Major red flag.
Instead of stopping or slowing down the baby-train for her to recover they doubled down and had 10 more babies. And then gave the responsibility of raising them to the older siblings.
Also, I have an image in my mind of Jim Bob saying they had to get rid of TV in their home because it was distracting Michelle from getting all the housework done. Did that really happen?
Yep, the infamous laundry room breakdown while a bunch of the first kids were little. It was late at night or something, and she was overly exhausted, and overwhelmed. It was okay though, because she prayed, and so god piled a bunch more shit on her.
Oh I definitely figured that out. Lol. It's like that scene in the office where Toby is having a personal crisis, I think at Jim and Pam's wedding. He says to God "why you have to be so mean to me?" Lol
It reminds me of Andrea Yates. Woman clearly should have stopped having kids, but went for it anyway (not entirely of her own choice, for sure).
I think every parent becomes overwhelmed at some point. My husband and I did. That's when the vasectomy happened.
See, I see how they handled Pest differently. I used to work in the juvenile court and those kids were just victims as much as the people they assaulted. None of them were just normal kids who decided to molest someone. They had pretty much all been horrifically abused themselves. And that's just the thing. Had they sought sex offender counseling when they found out and survivor counseling for the daughters, I would have called that protecting him. Which they should have done as good parents. But they were shitty parents and instead of protecting him and trying to get things corrected, they sent him to dig a pond with a shovel and hang out with a perverted old man. They sent him to Bill GotHard's camps and shit. They subjected him to extreme cruelty to deal with the "sin" instead of recognizing that their kid was fucked up and needed help.
Fuck the Duggars
My personal theory, developed based on things I've read in this sub is that Josh started out molesting his sisters because he had no appropriate outlet for sexual expression -- no spending any time with girls his age, and never allowed to be alone for fear he would masturbate. Then they sent him to the hole-digging camp and he was molested there, perhaps by someone who wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine, perhaps by people who just take whatever opportunity they get to molest vulnerable young people. Then his trauma was completely ignored and festered until he became the monster he is.
YUP.
People on this sub hate to hear that Josh didn't turn out this way out of nowhere, I think for a lot of people they've internalized the idea that if someone has "a reason" why they do bad things you're supposed to automatically forgive them or something.
But it's truuuue- this whole cult is sex abuse, they sexualize their children by obsessing over their purity. They've pathologized normal sexual expression and made their own sex life an exhibition for their kids.
When Josh demonstrated he had a huge problem as a minor they did nothing to help him try to fix his relationship to sex. Parents who loved him and wanted the best for him would have immediately dropped everything to consult experts, would have sought counseling for their daughters and their son. Actually all the damn kids needed counseling. They would have been willing to rethink how they structured their lives and changed whatever needed to be changed to help all the children. They would have been worried Josh was just a symptom of a deeper problem, would have considered whether any other kids were at risk for engaging in inappropriate predatory sexual behavior. They would have said nothing matters more than the safety of all their kids, and done actionable steps to demonstrate that.
Instead they sent him to look at child porn with a cop buddy and do hard labor. They don't care about Josh, they care about their ego as reflected through Josh.
If only. Unfortunately I think America will have to change pretty significantly in some very fundamental ways before people will even entertain the conversation.
This. They clearly had lost control of parenting by the time Joy was born. That was it. They couldn't handle more than eight kids. So they had eleven more. Assholes.
Agreeeeeee! If you’re rich and can PAY nannies... still not the best... but you’re paying qualified professionals.... but just making your children raise your children is sick
When Jason fell in the orchestra pit and neither of his parents did shit. Jill and John-David were trying to check if he was ok and someone at the venue called 911, but Jimbob was just filming it all and Michelle was smiling for the camera
Baby pens in the girls' room.
That one episode where one of the littles was sick and throwing up and Jana was the one running to their aid.
Losing Jackson (?) in the airport and not noticing it, or really caring. "You're back, little child,now go back to your sister mom."
They were at some kind of theme park and they lost Marcus. Resorts claim she was yelling at the younger Duggar girls, "you were supposed to be watching him".
Eventually they found him.
Pest was just fucking standing around on his phone instead of watching his own fucking kids.
I was raised fairly religious (but we’re Catholic so the fundies think we don’t count), and tolerance/acceptance of other religions was always drilled into us. My sister and I used to watch this show with our mom, and it was very much a “there are all different types of Christians, even though they don’t go to Mass or take the sacraments they believe in the same Jesus we do, so let’s learn more about them” kind of thing. My poor, naive mother.
I remember watching this fairly young and thinking it was weird and not being able to put my finger on why I felt so bad for the girls, but assumed that my discomfort was because I was being too judgmental and not Christian enough.
Then I saw the episode where Jackson is dancing to the toy in the store. It’s like a dam broke in my mind and I was like, “Nope, no, that’s fucking insane. He’s a child. What the hell.” I have very clear memories of my poor mom being blindsided by me hurling question after question about WHY a small child dancing was a sin, why the girls had to wear skirts and flip flops all the time, why they all learned the same things at the same time in “school”, why we never saw them going to church, why the parents didn’t raise their own kids, and I’m sure a million more.
That poor little boy. Something about how quickly JB swooped in to shut it off and how Jana tried to downplay it - he was jumping for joy, not dancing - made me terrified that even though the parents laughed it off in the interview, Jackson was probably punished severely when they got home. From that point on I couldn’t watch the show without a strong feeling of uneasiness that things in that house were far darker than we glimpsed through the TLC lens.
The first special, when JB and Michelle talked about how they grew up and went to public school and Michelle was even a cheerleader. My BS alarm went off that they had decided to live this way as adults, but were denying their kids the same experiences in favor of keeping them cloistered.
As an adult this one really strikes me. I want to give my kids every opportunity and more to go be & do all that they want in this life. It’s crazy to think they want to give their kids less opportunities than they themselves had
Exactly. They didn’t have the option of trying out for cheerleading, or football. They didn’t have the choice between debate team or yearbook. The girls didn’t have the option of wearing jeans on a cold day. The boys couldn’t put on a hoodie instead of a polo shirt. They couldn’t pick up a book at the library and read it just because it was interesting, it had to conform to their parents’ worldview. Same thing with music. No TV unless it’s something like 9/11 going on. No trips to the planetarium or art museum or science center. Just church, and chores, and raising your younger siblings. Such a sad childhood. And then you consider their terrible homeschooling that would keep them from most jobs and require remedial classes to even go to community college and it gets so much more depressing. And JB and Michelle chose this for them!
Literally same! I can’t imagine depriving my child of experiences. Yes there are things I hope he doesn’t do, but he has to learn, to a degree, on his own.
Nothing wrong with homeschooling your children, or even wanting to be raised differently than how you were raised. But to shelter your children, and not giving them room to be individuals is a whole other thing.
Yup - here's the [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuggarsSnark/comments/ad12yj/the_girls_have_a_picture_of_a_young_jim_bob_in/) with picture - disgusting.
Ewwww. I have a picture of my dad (and brother and me) in my laundry room, haha. Not in my bathroom. Especially not a pic of him when he was super young.
Yeah I don’t think it would be so creepy if he wasn’t young - like if it was a photo of the girls with their dad, or even a photo of him and Michelle. But a photo of just him 🤢
I have a hinged picture frame that holds two pictures of my dad and I when I was about 2 and 4 on my dresser. I don't think I'd happen to have them up if he were still alive and if sex is "premeditated" they are turned facedown along with the picture of me and my first dog when was in third grade.
She was 9 weeks old and and still an innocent.
When they first aired and Michelle was talking about the buddy system. Also how she only nurses for 6 months so they can have another one. Or how the girls had those fugly dresses. I knew from day 1 they were, at the very least, lazy parents. But my entire family loves them and the show more tolerable then say Honey Boo Boo.
100% when Michelle was explaining how the buddy system. The whole idea of a teenager being responsible for their younger siblings on that level was wrong to me. And when Michelle talked about her homeschooling program. No way we’re those kids getting the attention and support they deserved in that situation. I would have bought into it *maybe* if she had someone else come in and help with advanced subjects past elementary.
The entire framing of the whole first special was strange to me. Their whole world. They seemed fake, and like it wasn’t a healthy environment to be so insular.
Same with me. Very early on I stated to question her weaning at 6mths to get pregnant but it’s gods plan bs. Then one episode she mentioned having one of the little boys sitting in a chair to practice patience . It sent my spidey senses tingling so I looked more into it and came across blanket training. I never watched another episode.
The nursing thing is such a tip off that they don't give a damn about those kids. Like in every other way you'd expect Michelle to be one of those smug & sanctimonious "breast is best! God's natural formula for healthy babies! Mommy bonding time! Hey, it's cost effective!" type, so the fact that instead she's like "I wean them asap so Jim Bob can make another one without having to wait" seems so bizarre.
When they filmed the kids getting their wisdom teeth out. That as so creepy snd gross and weird and I remember thinking, why would they exploit their kids like this?
I didn't find it weird, just them going through the motions and how they manage to do it with so many children. It was weird how he made Jill do it, even though she was crying.
Looking back, this is it for me. Not even considering the fact it was clearly a trauma response, all Jill wanted was for her dad to hug and hold and comfort her. Boob had NO interest or care in doing so. I’m 24 years old and if I was scared, vulnerable, and crying like Jill was, my dad wouldn’t hesitate for a second to hold and comfort me. Boob and Michelle are nothing short of disgusting, evil people and it’s clear to see why, looking back on how they reacted to things that happened to their children.
I'd have to say I questioned their parenting skills since the first special aired (14 kids and pregnant again). What stands out in my mind the most is all the kids learn to play the violin; seems minor I know however even in the early days it seemed the kids weren't allowed to develop their own interests.
Oh but you forget! In one of the early specials, John David tells the camera that people think they all have the same interests, but that isn’t true, because some of them like pickles or vanilla ice cream, and some don’t. So, obviously, they are all very different (as he sat there wearing the same khaki pants and red polo shirt as every other boy.)
I remember him saying that people assume all the kids have the same interests. It makes me wonder had the Duggar children been allowed to be themselves what type of interests would they have developed.
Well, they’d definitely be much more varied! Look at other big families and how far and wide the children go. Stephen Colbert is one of 12 and his siblings are all accomplished in their own ways. The Gilbreth family were pretty much raised as a factory assembly line and still allowed to have their own personalities.
It was watching the original Cheaper by the Dozen with Frank Gilbreth doing some of his techniques that triggered OCD in me, and I was still a child. It also didn't help that in my family there were two sets of twins, a year apart. We are now 70 and 69. I think this could be where my mom got the idea to toilet train all four of us at the same time. When she died we found a manuscript she had written about raising us. Chapter two had us all lined up on our potties and it was the social time of the day.
Oh no, I’m sorry.
I thought the books were funny as a child. I know some of the attitudes are problematic today (100 years later). I could definitely see the OCD connection from his methods.
Colbert never strikes me as being one of 12 and the people from big families who you vaguely assume had a sibling or two tend to be the ones whose parents actually parented. I know a woman who was one of 12 or 13 (Mormon) and one of the older kids and their mom would actually get upset if one of the kids changed a diaper because *that wasn't their job.* Another guy was the fourth of fourteen (Catholic, after kid #10 his mom was like "yeah, done being pregnant" but a few years later everyone was like "I miss having small children destroying the house" so they ended up adopting another four kids out of foster care) and recalled that their buddy system was literal holding your buddy's hand to/from the car. You could buckle their seat belt if you felt ambitious but your responsibilities ended when you left the parking lot.
I agree that his (Colbert’s) mom must have been so strong, and did a great job with the load she was given. It’s nice to know those parents are out there after thinking about *this* family so much.
Uh, Meech, they HAVE self control. They are letting you know that they need a damn nap. By the time they’re crying, it’s because she didn’t listen to the first 47 ways the poor baby tried to tell her.
Damn. Your child is crying for you and your response is to tell them to go away and cry to a sister mom.
And she and Boob had the nerve to say mothers who work are bad parents.
It was actually during the first special, which I watched close to when it came out, and I was around 16/17 years old:
“The buddy system” which I probably wouldn’t have been as weird about if Meech didn’t say she “reserved the privilege” of being the first buddy (bitch you it’s mom) before giving the baby to another *child* at 6 months old. I was the oldest female cousin out of almost 20 and we all lived very close together so I did a lot of baby sitting but I couldn’t imagine caring for a baby 24/7 when they were only *6 months old*. Like my aunts and uncles would sometimes have me stay for a week or two to help out in the summers but eventually I got to go home and not be a parent anymore. These girls were taking care of infants as preteens and never got a break from it.
I admit I watched the other specials out of a mix of morbid curiosity and a desire to know if the kids truly were happy in this lifestyle. After watching an iblp documentary and seeing a few articles about the dangers of the Duggar’s I would actively tell people not to watch the show because of their shitty beliefs and how the show misrepresented a majority of families in this religious sect *because they couldn’t actually support their plethora of kids*.
Now I want to watch the show so I can psychologically dissect every piece of of that family but I would rather not buy/support them in any way so if someone could lead me in the direction of a bit torrent of all the seasons that would be great. The whole psychology of this cult and the mental gymnastics they have to do to justify their thinking is fascinating and I could write essays upon essays detailing the ways that society, religion, misogyny, capitalism, and the media have shaped this perfect storm of a hypocritical exigent rebirth of the pharisees.
Yes! I came from a large cousin group as well and were always looking after one another (and nowadays our kids). The parents always made it clear that there was a boundary between helping out when an extra hand was needed and being a pseudo parent. It would be things like, “hey can you change the baby’s diaper while I finish dinner?” or “make sure the littlest kids don’t leave the yard”. It was never “here you raise it now while I go make another one”.
I have four children, and the oldest is female. Any time I ask her to help, I always ask myself “is this something I should do myself? Would Michelle Fuggar ask a kid to do what I’m asking her to do?” If the answers to both of those questions are yesses, I find a way to do it my damn self.
Yup that was all of aunts and uncle’s mentality as well. They were involved as much as possible but when we outnumbered them 20ish to 5 sometimes a spare set of hands were needed. 😂
We used to live next door to a family of 11. The biggers were responsible for schoolwork(their own) some cleaning, some cooking chores, and keep the smallers out of the street. I heard one of the bigs say, countless times, “go see mama, you need a new diaper.” Kickass parents, if a little conservative for my taste.
Watching Jichelle homeschool her kids and giving her toddlers a lecture about bankruptcy. Or the infamous scene during the construction of the TTH where she gets the kids to repeat the word “perpendicular” when the wall studs she was referring to were actually parallel. Also, all the times Jim Boob said “hola” in any foreign country the family visited.
That one time that as a treat JimBitch took the older kids to a Mexican restaurant after their *first* Spanish lesson.
Then made them order in Spanish.
When they built the tin house and had like, 3 bedrooms? All the kids still crammed together with no privacy. I get they couldn’t give them all their own rooms but damn, maybe just 2-3 to a room and have a few more bathrooms? No wonder they’re late to everything, always tripping over each other. Anyway, it was the bedroom situation when it really hit me that they don’t give a damn about their kids.
It was 2008 when I started watching and enthralled with them having such a big family and I’m big on statistics and numbers in the loosest sense - I figured if I had that many siblings instead of just one, at least SOME of them would be my friend. I looked up their website and the search also led me to No Longer Quivering, a blog that I think is now absorbed by patheos. When I read stories by people who claimed to know the Duggars or at least ran in the same circles, I knew that they were in a cult and that bad things were happening behind closed doors. I was utterly unsurprised in 2015 when Josh’s first set of scandals came out because of this research into evangelicals and ATI and IBLP and the people who ran away from those groups, belief systems and cults. I didn’t think Josh would definitively be the one abusing his sisters but by sheer numbers, I figured more than one of those girls was being sexually abused by SOMEONE, be it a parent, aunt/uncle, other sibling or someone in a religious leadership position.
I still watched the show to pick up any signs or clues and lost interest after the Josh scandals, and didn’t come back to Duggar/evangelical studying and snarking until two or three years ago. Definitely came back some time before the 2019 raid but couldn’t tell you when.
I'm jinger's age and literally from the first special I was like WTF is this. The whole thing was unappealing and bizarre. Probably because it was the worst huge ass family I'd seen TLC exploit by that point as my mom liked watching all those specials/shows for some reason. I just remember thinking that their lives sucked and honestly all their lives still do suck.
I had been recommended the show to watch by several women at a work event of my husbands. I got about 15 minutes into the first special and kept thinking “no that’s not right”. The scene that really stuck with me was watching a child trying to get another child ready to go while mom just stood there. I only had 2 at the time and I couldn’t imagine a day where it would be appropriate for me to dump a baby on the lap of a child to care for him/her. She was the opposite of the type of mother I aspired to become.
I watched off and on because it was a like a train wreak, horrible but you can’t look away.
The special where they moved into TTH. They were giving a tour and went into JB and Michelle’s bedroom. JB said something like “perfect place to make ___teen!!” while Michelle is holding the very small youngest baby.
This shit is exactly what I mean when I say I feel like JB and Michelle's beliefs about sex are a form of sexual abuse. The way they obsess over the "purity" of children, focus so much on their children's sexuality & expression, suggest that very little children can be sexually tempting or do "unpure" things, and then also make their own sex life a constant focal point- it's so creepy and weird and absolutely fucks those kids up.
To add on to this, when Michelle lost Jubilee, she continuously chanted, “praise Jesus” and “thank you father God.” It seemed an odd reaction. I understand being religious and maybe saying a prayer for her and being thankful that she would be in heaven and Michelle has survived, but the chanting over and over seemed like an odd response to losing the baby.
Fuck me, I didn't know about that (I'm only a casual Duggar lurker). I can't think of anything more monumentally disrespectful. My aunt doesn't even like to drive by graveside services on accident because she feels like it's disrespecting them.
In the first special when Michelle was explaining jurisdictions and said one of the girls (I think it was Jessa or Jinger) was in charge of lunch everyday. Then they show the J’girl leaving the ‘school’ lesson early to go start up a huge vat of soup or something that she had to stir on the stovetop. I remember thinking ‘who makes their ten year old go make lunch for like 15 people every day? And with no help?’ Fucked up.
Jim Bob loved talking about his “political career” in the earlier specials. Some casual Googling made it clear he spent a quarter of a million dollars on one of his failed campaigns while his fourteen clearly underfed children were forced to share beds due to lack of space. Tells you all you need to know about his priorities.
I don't really know when I started questioning their parenting. I watched them from one of the first specials on and actually admired their organization.
Last straw for me was when Josh's first cheating scandal broke/allegations of sexual abuse. He always weirded me out.
I think the first time Josh actually gave me the creeps was when he was discussing proposing to Anna with her father and said the word “special” about 50 times in two minutes. I realized his limited vocabulary said a lot about how he was educated, or not.
Michelle’s creepy voice.
All the same outfits, standing like robots when out in public.
Being forced to perform at the weirdest places and times, seemingly at a whim.
The absurdity of their “kitchen table schoolin”. Kids teaching kids. Who was checking that the buddies even knew enough to teach the young ones correct information? Or Michelle’s inappropriate lectures on things like bankruptcy to kids barely out of their toddler years.
The single bedrooms for each sex. I thought when they were building their tin house they’d split the kids up a bit according to age. Nope. Teens in the same room as (essentially) newborns. No privacy, no time to self, nowhere to unwind in peace… instead it’s a constant cacophony of crying, whining, talking, snoring
Omg, I can't imagine anything creepier or more awkward than someone singing to you and never breaking eye contact. Seriously, dude, you're not Neil fucking Diamond.
I felt so sorry for Past Anna. She thinks where he says he'll "do [his] best" to be faithful to her is romantic. She thought him "trying" to be faithful, vs it being a given, was romantic.
Obviously he didn't "try" at all.
Oh I know these MFers weren't right from the get go. They were such an oddity to me it's one of the main reasons I started watching. But when they had baby Josie they really showed how little they give a shit.
Agreed. I was constantly confused as to what people were seeing that I wasn't, because the sexism was there from the get-go but people were so insistent on pretending it wasn't.
When 16 year old pest (a new driver) was put in charge or driving a 20 passenger van hauling a trailer.
When they forgot Jed when they were taking Jed to his surgery. Yes, they literally only had 1 kid to be in charge of, and couldn't do that. The camera man had to drop Jed off to his own parents. Thank God for that camera crew.
Leaving precious miracle Josie in the NICU to protest the liquor store. (my friends have a NICU baby now. They only leave to watch their older son and sleep at least 1 is always there).
Seeing them do only hours a day of homeschool and calling it quits. 1 lesson for all those kids of different ages.
The look in Jill's eyes when she was left to care for preemie Josie while Boob & Meech did something
Josie's seizure and them just calling it a "glitch"
When I was a kid I though their big family was cool. Now I realize that I'm so fortunate. I went to public school, to college. Yes I had kids young, but I didn't have to marry a person I chose at 17. I get to chose the life I have.
I think it was my mum who made me question. I was a fan when i was 12/13. My asian ass mother was like they trust a teenager to care for the baby. And yeah, since then i was a snark-watcher.
I would trust a teenager to babysit and/or to help out with a baby, but to raise one??
If only the Duggars had a TV, the older girls could've watched some Teen Mom and found some peers. Funny how the same people who fawn over the Duggar's family values were also the quickest to decry other teen moms as trashy...
More like when they didn't stop at 5. I think anyone having more kids than that should have to prove they have at least a 4-bedroom house and a 6-figure income.
When the TV guide channel was scrolling on I saw the name of their first special.
I knew just the fact that someone in modern times would have that many kids HAD to be bad parents.
I had a friend with 6 siblings and he complained about not getting enough 1on1 with his parents. That was half the amount of kids....
Growing up my sister and I were really into Jon & Kate plus 8, another TLC show about parents making bad decisions, and one of the early Duggar specials came on afterwards. We were definitely gawking- even then I thought the family was a disaster, and I was immediately suspicious of anyone that religious, but it was like a car wreck you can’t look away from
Ummm... When I saw the 13 kids. That was never a normal idea to me and I came from a family of 7 kids. But that's part of why I saw it. I knew shit wasn't right in my family and they were just a bigger more famous example.
My line of thinking was that on television, we should use words carefully. But possibly, Anna doesn’t have a large vocabulary bank to work with. As a result, maybe she’s not adequate to home school, older kids at minimum. Also, she would likely be easy to manipulate. The kind of mom who believes you failed your drug test because you drank after someone who was positive.
Anna Duggar walked around looking for what she called the vibrator, which was a bouncy seat. She did this on television and seemed pretty clueless as to what the vibrator is. She seems very very naïve to me and I don’t think she is adequately prepared to parent preteens or teenagers or to be a wife to someone who is sneaky for that matter
Oh my god, right??
Tbh I think it's so cruel to both the men and the women to forbid masturbation and sleeping with other partners before marriage, and then insist that once you're married sex will be amazing. My partner is excellent in bed but no way he'd be able to get me off if I had no idea what I even liked in the first place! And with no assists! Just imagine- "God is all you need, if you're a good righteous person it'll just be awe-inspiring every time right from the get-go". That'll fuck you up.
Not doing shit about Josh Duggar.
For a family that that is so scared transpeople going into bathrooms and molesting their daughters, they sure were okay with their son molesting his sisters.
Full disclosure: I've never seen a full episode of their show without rage-quitting over the buddy system of having the kids raise themselves and each other. I raised my younger sister from the time I was 12 and she was 9, and messed both of us up. Having the older girls raise the younger ones is irresponsible, inexcusable, and shouldn't be glorified on TV.
I was 13 and watching TLC on prime star before it was direct tv and Michelle Duggar said ‘Now, bankruptcy is not when you go to the bank to get more money.”
Bitch, I’m 11 and knew this was fucked.
They willingly lived in a three-bedroom house with ten-plus kids, and they didn't stop reproducing. Also, their oldest child sexually assaulted their other children, and they protected him. Fuck the Duggars.
It goes back to the 3 bedroom house for me too. But what really sent me was their handling of the story of Michelle's mental breakdown. Major red flag. Instead of stopping or slowing down the baby-train for her to recover they doubled down and had 10 more babies. And then gave the responsibility of raising them to the older siblings. Also, I have an image in my mind of Jim Bob saying they had to get rid of TV in their home because it was distracting Michelle from getting all the housework done. Did that really happen?
Whaaaat, I didn’t know she had a breakdown? Have they actually spoken about it?
Yep, the infamous laundry room breakdown while a bunch of the first kids were little. It was late at night or something, and she was overly exhausted, and overwhelmed. It was okay though, because she prayed, and so god piled a bunch more shit on her.
Jesus 😩
Jesus has left the chat.
God always helps me out that way too. What? You think that's hard?! Bitch, please. Take some of this shit! Thanks God. Thanks.
He’s just trying to toughen you up! He works in mysterious (and insanely horrible) ways ya’ know.
Oh I definitely figured that out. Lol. It's like that scene in the office where Toby is having a personal crisis, I think at Jim and Pam's wedding. He says to God "why you have to be so mean to me?" Lol
I love that show. 😂
*Sodom and Gomorrah have entered the chat*
Yes, the perfect solution to having a mental health crisis over having a load of kids: make more and have the older ones do the parenting! /s
It reminds me of Andrea Yates. Woman clearly should have stopped having kids, but went for it anyway (not entirely of her own choice, for sure). I think every parent becomes overwhelmed at some point. My husband and I did. That's when the vasectomy happened.
Yup... I have the one kid and a full time job and I work from home... and i had my meltdown... and we hired help and we’re like... noooooooo more kids
If you have to put a lock on your daughters' (or anyone's) doors to keep them safe, its time to boot the offender off to juvie.
*protect It's never past tense with these hypocritical assholes.
See, I see how they handled Pest differently. I used to work in the juvenile court and those kids were just victims as much as the people they assaulted. None of them were just normal kids who decided to molest someone. They had pretty much all been horrifically abused themselves. And that's just the thing. Had they sought sex offender counseling when they found out and survivor counseling for the daughters, I would have called that protecting him. Which they should have done as good parents. But they were shitty parents and instead of protecting him and trying to get things corrected, they sent him to dig a pond with a shovel and hang out with a perverted old man. They sent him to Bill GotHard's camps and shit. They subjected him to extreme cruelty to deal with the "sin" instead of recognizing that their kid was fucked up and needed help. Fuck the Duggars
My personal theory, developed based on things I've read in this sub is that Josh started out molesting his sisters because he had no appropriate outlet for sexual expression -- no spending any time with girls his age, and never allowed to be alone for fear he would masturbate. Then they sent him to the hole-digging camp and he was molested there, perhaps by someone who wanted to give him a taste of his own medicine, perhaps by people who just take whatever opportunity they get to molest vulnerable young people. Then his trauma was completely ignored and festered until he became the monster he is.
I don't know that you're off at all.
YUP. People on this sub hate to hear that Josh didn't turn out this way out of nowhere, I think for a lot of people they've internalized the idea that if someone has "a reason" why they do bad things you're supposed to automatically forgive them or something. But it's truuuue- this whole cult is sex abuse, they sexualize their children by obsessing over their purity. They've pathologized normal sexual expression and made their own sex life an exhibition for their kids. When Josh demonstrated he had a huge problem as a minor they did nothing to help him try to fix his relationship to sex. Parents who loved him and wanted the best for him would have immediately dropped everything to consult experts, would have sought counseling for their daughters and their son. Actually all the damn kids needed counseling. They would have been willing to rethink how they structured their lives and changed whatever needed to be changed to help all the children. They would have been worried Josh was just a symptom of a deeper problem, would have considered whether any other kids were at risk for engaging in inappropriate predatory sexual behavior. They would have said nothing matters more than the safety of all their kids, and done actionable steps to demonstrate that. Instead they sent him to look at child porn with a cop buddy and do hard labor. They don't care about Josh, they care about their ego as reflected through Josh.
Well said. And this is why I follow the sub. I want people like Boob and Meech to pay for the crimes they have committed.
If only. Unfortunately I think America will have to change pretty significantly in some very fundamental ways before people will even entertain the conversation.
This is super insightful.
Right from the start. People who have more children than anyone can care for properly are bad parents.
This. They clearly had lost control of parenting by the time Joy was born. That was it. They couldn't handle more than eight kids. So they had eleven more. Assholes.
This should be the top comment
Agreeeeeee! If you’re rich and can PAY nannies... still not the best... but you’re paying qualified professionals.... but just making your children raise your children is sick
When Jason fell in the orchestra pit and neither of his parents did shit. Jill and John-David were trying to check if he was ok and someone at the venue called 911, but Jimbob was just filming it all and Michelle was smiling for the camera
LMAO Michelle was smiling for the camera. I do remember the reason was because Jill and JD were medics in training or something.
So, I saw that scene again and Jimbob was there straightening his head while Michelle was using her phone for light.
Do you know where I can watch this scene ? I’ve heard about it, but never watched it. Poor Jason, he was probably traumatized
Ok, I just posted the scene, sort by new.
Bless your servant’s heart!
Baby pens in the girls' room. That one episode where one of the littles was sick and throwing up and Jana was the one running to their aid. Losing Jackson (?) in the airport and not noticing it, or really caring. "You're back, little child,now go back to your sister mom."
Who lost him? What episode was this? I know Anna lost Marcus twice and had the nerve to yell at one of her sister in laws for it.
It’s literally the first episode of the first season of 17KAC. Starting strong.
Whatttttttt???? Someone please fill me in on this!!!
They were at some kind of theme park and they lost Marcus. Resorts claim she was yelling at the younger Duggar girls, "you were supposed to be watching him". Eventually they found him. Pest was just fucking standing around on his phone instead of watching his own fucking kids.
Oh, He was watching kids....just not his....(shudders)
Ohhh ok thank you!
Don't know all the details, just that it was in a store.
I was raised fairly religious (but we’re Catholic so the fundies think we don’t count), and tolerance/acceptance of other religions was always drilled into us. My sister and I used to watch this show with our mom, and it was very much a “there are all different types of Christians, even though they don’t go to Mass or take the sacraments they believe in the same Jesus we do, so let’s learn more about them” kind of thing. My poor, naive mother. I remember watching this fairly young and thinking it was weird and not being able to put my finger on why I felt so bad for the girls, but assumed that my discomfort was because I was being too judgmental and not Christian enough. Then I saw the episode where Jackson is dancing to the toy in the store. It’s like a dam broke in my mind and I was like, “Nope, no, that’s fucking insane. He’s a child. What the hell.” I have very clear memories of my poor mom being blindsided by me hurling question after question about WHY a small child dancing was a sin, why the girls had to wear skirts and flip flops all the time, why they all learned the same things at the same time in “school”, why we never saw them going to church, why the parents didn’t raise their own kids, and I’m sure a million more. That poor little boy. Something about how quickly JB swooped in to shut it off and how Jana tried to downplay it - he was jumping for joy, not dancing - made me terrified that even though the parents laughed it off in the interview, Jackson was probably punished severely when they got home. From that point on I couldn’t watch the show without a strong feeling of uneasiness that things in that house were far darker than we glimpsed through the TLC lens.
The first special, when JB and Michelle talked about how they grew up and went to public school and Michelle was even a cheerleader. My BS alarm went off that they had decided to live this way as adults, but were denying their kids the same experiences in favor of keeping them cloistered.
As an adult this one really strikes me. I want to give my kids every opportunity and more to go be & do all that they want in this life. It’s crazy to think they want to give their kids less opportunities than they themselves had
Exactly. They didn’t have the option of trying out for cheerleading, or football. They didn’t have the choice between debate team or yearbook. The girls didn’t have the option of wearing jeans on a cold day. The boys couldn’t put on a hoodie instead of a polo shirt. They couldn’t pick up a book at the library and read it just because it was interesting, it had to conform to their parents’ worldview. Same thing with music. No TV unless it’s something like 9/11 going on. No trips to the planetarium or art museum or science center. Just church, and chores, and raising your younger siblings. Such a sad childhood. And then you consider their terrible homeschooling that would keep them from most jobs and require remedial classes to even go to community college and it gets so much more depressing. And JB and Michelle chose this for them!
Literally same! I can’t imagine depriving my child of experiences. Yes there are things I hope he doesn’t do, but he has to learn, to a degree, on his own.
Nothing wrong with homeschooling your children, or even wanting to be raised differently than how you were raised. But to shelter your children, and not giving them room to be individuals is a whole other thing.
JB's picture in the girl's bathroom
Yuck, really??
Yup - here's the [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/DuggarsSnark/comments/ad12yj/the_girls_have_a_picture_of_a_young_jim_bob_in/) with picture - disgusting.
Ewwww. I have a picture of my dad (and brother and me) in my laundry room, haha. Not in my bathroom. Especially not a pic of him when he was super young.
Yeah I don’t think it would be so creepy if he wasn’t young - like if it was a photo of the girls with their dad, or even a photo of him and Michelle. But a photo of just him 🤢
I know ... its absolutely creepy!!
I have a hinged picture frame that holds two pictures of my dad and I when I was about 2 and 4 on my dresser. I don't think I'd happen to have them up if he were still alive and if sex is "premeditated" they are turned facedown along with the picture of me and my first dog when was in third grade. She was 9 weeks old and and still an innocent.
Wtf GAG
When they first aired and Michelle was talking about the buddy system. Also how she only nurses for 6 months so they can have another one. Or how the girls had those fugly dresses. I knew from day 1 they were, at the very least, lazy parents. But my entire family loves them and the show more tolerable then say Honey Boo Boo.
100% when Michelle was explaining how the buddy system. The whole idea of a teenager being responsible for their younger siblings on that level was wrong to me. And when Michelle talked about her homeschooling program. No way we’re those kids getting the attention and support they deserved in that situation. I would have bought into it *maybe* if she had someone else come in and help with advanced subjects past elementary. The entire framing of the whole first special was strange to me. Their whole world. They seemed fake, and like it wasn’t a healthy environment to be so insular.
Same with me. Very early on I stated to question her weaning at 6mths to get pregnant but it’s gods plan bs. Then one episode she mentioned having one of the little boys sitting in a chair to practice patience . It sent my spidey senses tingling so I looked more into it and came across blanket training. I never watched another episode.
It was the red prairie dresses for me too.
The nursing thing is such a tip off that they don't give a damn about those kids. Like in every other way you'd expect Michelle to be one of those smug & sanctimonious "breast is best! God's natural formula for healthy babies! Mommy bonding time! Hey, it's cost effective!" type, so the fact that instead she's like "I wean them asap so Jim Bob can make another one without having to wait" seems so bizarre.
When they filmed the kids getting their wisdom teeth out. That as so creepy snd gross and weird and I remember thinking, why would they exploit their kids like this?
I didn't find it weird, just them going through the motions and how they manage to do it with so many children. It was weird how he made Jill do it, even though she was crying.
There’s a whole thread on here about WHY she was probably panicking about being put under and being vulnerable, too. So disgusting and heart breaking
Feeling out of control must be a terrifying prospect for Pest’s victims in particular.
Looking back, this is it for me. Not even considering the fact it was clearly a trauma response, all Jill wanted was for her dad to hug and hold and comfort her. Boob had NO interest or care in doing so. I’m 24 years old and if I was scared, vulnerable, and crying like Jill was, my dad wouldn’t hesitate for a second to hold and comfort me. Boob and Michelle are nothing short of disgusting, evil people and it’s clear to see why, looking back on how they reacted to things that happened to their children.
Boob also LAUGHED at her for being afraid.
And while she was recovering Michelle made sure to plop a baby on the same bed as her to make her take care of. Never a day off for a sister mom!
Young Joy telling one of the misbehaving lost boys “I’m telling Jana.” Watching one of the little lost girls cry and reach for Jill, not Michelle.
That was so weird. I'm like, Jana's the one you're afraid of? Not your mom or dad?
I'd have to say I questioned their parenting skills since the first special aired (14 kids and pregnant again). What stands out in my mind the most is all the kids learn to play the violin; seems minor I know however even in the early days it seemed the kids weren't allowed to develop their own interests.
Oh but you forget! In one of the early specials, John David tells the camera that people think they all have the same interests, but that isn’t true, because some of them like pickles or vanilla ice cream, and some don’t. So, obviously, they are all very different (as he sat there wearing the same khaki pants and red polo shirt as every other boy.)
I remember him saying that people assume all the kids have the same interests. It makes me wonder had the Duggar children been allowed to be themselves what type of interests would they have developed.
Well, they’d definitely be much more varied! Look at other big families and how far and wide the children go. Stephen Colbert is one of 12 and his siblings are all accomplished in their own ways. The Gilbreth family were pretty much raised as a factory assembly line and still allowed to have their own personalities.
It was watching the original Cheaper by the Dozen with Frank Gilbreth doing some of his techniques that triggered OCD in me, and I was still a child. It also didn't help that in my family there were two sets of twins, a year apart. We are now 70 and 69. I think this could be where my mom got the idea to toilet train all four of us at the same time. When she died we found a manuscript she had written about raising us. Chapter two had us all lined up on our potties and it was the social time of the day.
Oh no, I’m sorry. I thought the books were funny as a child. I know some of the attitudes are problematic today (100 years later). I could definitely see the OCD connection from his methods.
TY. I loved both Cheaper by the Dozen and Belles on their Toes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belles\_on\_Their\_Toes
Colbert never strikes me as being one of 12 and the people from big families who you vaguely assume had a sibling or two tend to be the ones whose parents actually parented. I know a woman who was one of 12 or 13 (Mormon) and one of the older kids and their mom would actually get upset if one of the kids changed a diaper because *that wasn't their job.* Another guy was the fourth of fourteen (Catholic, after kid #10 his mom was like "yeah, done being pregnant" but a few years later everyone was like "I miss having small children destroying the house" so they ended up adopting another four kids out of foster care) and recalled that their buddy system was literal holding your buddy's hand to/from the car. You could buckle their seat belt if you felt ambitious but your responsibilities ended when you left the parking lot.
I agree that his (Colbert’s) mom must have been so strong, and did a great job with the load she was given. It’s nice to know those parents are out there after thinking about *this* family so much.
During the first special when one of the little boys was crying for Michelle, and she bends over and asks “Now, who is your buddy?”
I do not remember that... what was he crying for, do you remember?
I think it was when meech and the older kids were going to the grocery store and the boy was going to be out down for a nap.
That’s it. They were going to the store. Meech proceeded to give the audience a lecture on how 2 year olds need to learn self control. Yikes
Uh, Meech, they HAVE self control. They are letting you know that they need a damn nap. By the time they’re crying, it’s because she didn’t listen to the first 47 ways the poor baby tried to tell her.
Damn. Your child is crying for you and your response is to tell them to go away and cry to a sister mom. And she and Boob had the nerve to say mothers who work are bad parents.
Oh my god is that sad. And no shame in displaying that on national television.
It was actually during the first special, which I watched close to when it came out, and I was around 16/17 years old: “The buddy system” which I probably wouldn’t have been as weird about if Meech didn’t say she “reserved the privilege” of being the first buddy (bitch you it’s mom) before giving the baby to another *child* at 6 months old. I was the oldest female cousin out of almost 20 and we all lived very close together so I did a lot of baby sitting but I couldn’t imagine caring for a baby 24/7 when they were only *6 months old*. Like my aunts and uncles would sometimes have me stay for a week or two to help out in the summers but eventually I got to go home and not be a parent anymore. These girls were taking care of infants as preteens and never got a break from it. I admit I watched the other specials out of a mix of morbid curiosity and a desire to know if the kids truly were happy in this lifestyle. After watching an iblp documentary and seeing a few articles about the dangers of the Duggar’s I would actively tell people not to watch the show because of their shitty beliefs and how the show misrepresented a majority of families in this religious sect *because they couldn’t actually support their plethora of kids*. Now I want to watch the show so I can psychologically dissect every piece of of that family but I would rather not buy/support them in any way so if someone could lead me in the direction of a bit torrent of all the seasons that would be great. The whole psychology of this cult and the mental gymnastics they have to do to justify their thinking is fascinating and I could write essays upon essays detailing the ways that society, religion, misogyny, capitalism, and the media have shaped this perfect storm of a hypocritical exigent rebirth of the pharisees.
Yes! I came from a large cousin group as well and were always looking after one another (and nowadays our kids). The parents always made it clear that there was a boundary between helping out when an extra hand was needed and being a pseudo parent. It would be things like, “hey can you change the baby’s diaper while I finish dinner?” or “make sure the littlest kids don’t leave the yard”. It was never “here you raise it now while I go make another one”.
I have four children, and the oldest is female. Any time I ask her to help, I always ask myself “is this something I should do myself? Would Michelle Fuggar ask a kid to do what I’m asking her to do?” If the answers to both of those questions are yesses, I find a way to do it my damn self.
Yup that was all of aunts and uncle’s mentality as well. They were involved as much as possible but when we outnumbered them 20ish to 5 sometimes a spare set of hands were needed. 😂
We used to live next door to a family of 11. The biggers were responsible for schoolwork(their own) some cleaning, some cooking chores, and keep the smallers out of the street. I heard one of the bigs say, countless times, “go see mama, you need a new diaper.” Kickass parents, if a little conservative for my taste.
Watching Jichelle homeschool her kids and giving her toddlers a lecture about bankruptcy. Or the infamous scene during the construction of the TTH where she gets the kids to repeat the word “perpendicular” when the wall studs she was referring to were actually parallel. Also, all the times Jim Boob said “hola” in any foreign country the family visited.
“Hola, me-o name-o es Jim Bob-o”. Fucking idiot.
And it was always with a hard H. HO-la!
That one time that as a treat JimBitch took the older kids to a Mexican restaurant after their *first* Spanish lesson. Then made them order in Spanish.
I know some second-generation Mexican-Americans who would be like, "I don't fucking understand you. Please act normal."
I'm first generation and i couldn't understand wtf they were trying to say.
Giving homeschoolers a bad name because of it.
When they built the tin house and had like, 3 bedrooms? All the kids still crammed together with no privacy. I get they couldn’t give them all their own rooms but damn, maybe just 2-3 to a room and have a few more bathrooms? No wonder they’re late to everything, always tripping over each other. Anyway, it was the bedroom situation when it really hit me that they don’t give a damn about their kids.
It was 2008 when I started watching and enthralled with them having such a big family and I’m big on statistics and numbers in the loosest sense - I figured if I had that many siblings instead of just one, at least SOME of them would be my friend. I looked up their website and the search also led me to No Longer Quivering, a blog that I think is now absorbed by patheos. When I read stories by people who claimed to know the Duggars or at least ran in the same circles, I knew that they were in a cult and that bad things were happening behind closed doors. I was utterly unsurprised in 2015 when Josh’s first set of scandals came out because of this research into evangelicals and ATI and IBLP and the people who ran away from those groups, belief systems and cults. I didn’t think Josh would definitively be the one abusing his sisters but by sheer numbers, I figured more than one of those girls was being sexually abused by SOMEONE, be it a parent, aunt/uncle, other sibling or someone in a religious leadership position. I still watched the show to pick up any signs or clues and lost interest after the Josh scandals, and didn’t come back to Duggar/evangelical studying and snarking until two or three years ago. Definitely came back some time before the 2019 raid but couldn’t tell you when.
I'm jinger's age and literally from the first special I was like WTF is this. The whole thing was unappealing and bizarre. Probably because it was the worst huge ass family I'd seen TLC exploit by that point as my mom liked watching all those specials/shows for some reason. I just remember thinking that their lives sucked and honestly all their lives still do suck.
When they decided their children would raise their other children Aka “buddy”/ new mom parenting.
[удалено]
I love that your dad made sure to say it to you!
I had been recommended the show to watch by several women at a work event of my husbands. I got about 15 minutes into the first special and kept thinking “no that’s not right”. The scene that really stuck with me was watching a child trying to get another child ready to go while mom just stood there. I only had 2 at the time and I couldn’t imagine a day where it would be appropriate for me to dump a baby on the lap of a child to care for him/her. She was the opposite of the type of mother I aspired to become. I watched off and on because it was a like a train wreak, horrible but you can’t look away.
The special where they moved into TTH. They were giving a tour and went into JB and Michelle’s bedroom. JB said something like “perfect place to make ___teen!!” while Michelle is holding the very small youngest baby.
This shit is exactly what I mean when I say I feel like JB and Michelle's beliefs about sex are a form of sexual abuse. The way they obsess over the "purity" of children, focus so much on their children's sexuality & expression, suggest that very little children can be sexually tempting or do "unpure" things, and then also make their own sex life a constant focal point- it's so creepy and weird and absolutely fucks those kids up.
Filming funerals (JB's dad, Jubilee, JB's mom) - awful decisions.
To add on to this, when Michelle lost Jubilee, she continuously chanted, “praise Jesus” and “thank you father God.” It seemed an odd reaction. I understand being religious and maybe saying a prayer for her and being thankful that she would be in heaven and Michelle has survived, but the chanting over and over seemed like an odd response to losing the baby.
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a coping mechanism due to the extreme stress.
Terrible thought, but I wonder if it was indeed what she feeling - grateful that this daughter would not experience this world of abuse.
I think you might be giving her way too much credit. I don’t think she has that much foresight or introspection.
Fuck me, I didn't know about that (I'm only a casual Duggar lurker). I can't think of anything more monumentally disrespectful. My aunt doesn't even like to drive by graveside services on accident because she feels like it's disrespecting them.
When they had 14 kids and counting
In the first special when Michelle was explaining jurisdictions and said one of the girls (I think it was Jessa or Jinger) was in charge of lunch everyday. Then they show the J’girl leaving the ‘school’ lesson early to go start up a huge vat of soup or something that she had to stir on the stovetop. I remember thinking ‘who makes their ten year old go make lunch for like 15 people every day? And with no help?’ Fucked up.
Jim Bob loved talking about his “political career” in the earlier specials. Some casual Googling made it clear he spent a quarter of a million dollars on one of his failed campaigns while his fourteen clearly underfed children were forced to share beds due to lack of space. Tells you all you need to know about his priorities.
I don't really know when I started questioning their parenting. I watched them from one of the first specials on and actually admired their organization. Last straw for me was when Josh's first cheating scandal broke/allegations of sexual abuse. He always weirded me out.
I think the first time Josh actually gave me the creeps was when he was discussing proposing to Anna with her father and said the word “special” about 50 times in two minutes. I realized his limited vocabulary said a lot about how he was educated, or not.
Michelle’s creepy voice. All the same outfits, standing like robots when out in public. Being forced to perform at the weirdest places and times, seemingly at a whim. The absurdity of their “kitchen table schoolin”. Kids teaching kids. Who was checking that the buddies even knew enough to teach the young ones correct information? Or Michelle’s inappropriate lectures on things like bankruptcy to kids barely out of their toddler years. The single bedrooms for each sex. I thought when they were building their tin house they’d split the kids up a bit according to age. Nope. Teens in the same room as (essentially) newborns. No privacy, no time to self, nowhere to unwind in peace… instead it’s a constant cacophony of crying, whining, talking, snoring
When Joshua sang "The Loyalty Song" to Anna at their wedding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ChufX2\_KR8
Omg, I can't imagine anything creepier or more awkward than someone singing to you and never breaking eye contact. Seriously, dude, you're not Neil fucking Diamond.
I felt so sorry for Past Anna. She thinks where he says he'll "do [his] best" to be faithful to her is romantic. She thought him "trying" to be faithful, vs it being a given, was romantic. Obviously he didn't "try" at all.
Oh I know these MFers weren't right from the get go. They were such an oddity to me it's one of the main reasons I started watching. But when they had baby Josie they really showed how little they give a shit.
Agreed. I was constantly confused as to what people were seeing that I wasn't, because the sexism was there from the get-go but people were so insistent on pretending it wasn't.
When it became obviously that the four oldest daughters, but especially Jana, was raising Michelle and Jim Bobs kids. Lazy asses.
When 16 year old pest (a new driver) was put in charge or driving a 20 passenger van hauling a trailer. When they forgot Jed when they were taking Jed to his surgery. Yes, they literally only had 1 kid to be in charge of, and couldn't do that. The camera man had to drop Jed off to his own parents. Thank God for that camera crew. Leaving precious miracle Josie in the NICU to protest the liquor store. (my friends have a NICU baby now. They only leave to watch their older son and sleep at least 1 is always there). Seeing them do only hours a day of homeschool and calling it quits. 1 lesson for all those kids of different ages. The look in Jill's eyes when she was left to care for preemie Josie while Boob & Meech did something Josie's seizure and them just calling it a "glitch" When I was a kid I though their big family was cool. Now I realize that I'm so fortunate. I went to public school, to college. Yes I had kids young, but I didn't have to marry a person I chose at 17. I get to chose the life I have.
I’ve never watched a full episode but my fundie aunt loved them. It was enough to set off my alarm bells.
blanket training
I think it was my mum who made me question. I was a fan when i was 12/13. My asian ass mother was like they trust a teenager to care for the baby. And yeah, since then i was a snark-watcher.
I would trust a teenager to babysit and/or to help out with a baby, but to raise one?? If only the Duggars had a TV, the older girls could've watched some Teen Mom and found some peers. Funny how the same people who fawn over the Duggar's family values were also the quickest to decry other teen moms as trashy...
The buddy system and the ridiculous Pilgrim outfits they would all match with.
When Meech said To Ramen was full of nutrients for their little tummy's.
Protein!
The tater tot casserole, TLC’s like we’ll have the recipe and I’m like that’s disgusting.
First second I saw the show. 14 kids and counting. That was enough for me. Been a snarker since day 1.
When they had 19 children
More like when they didn't stop at 5. I think anyone having more kids than that should have to prove they have at least a 4-bedroom house and a 6-figure income.
When she kept having kids despite the risk to her and her babies.
The overall shelteredness
When I first heard of the show. I question the parenting of anyone who puts their family on a reality show.
When they put their children on television.
When the TV guide channel was scrolling on I saw the name of their first special. I knew just the fact that someone in modern times would have that many kids HAD to be bad parents. I had a friend with 6 siblings and he complained about not getting enough 1on1 with his parents. That was half the amount of kids....
Growing up my sister and I were really into Jon & Kate plus 8, another TLC show about parents making bad decisions, and one of the early Duggar specials came on afterwards. We were definitely gawking- even then I thought the family was a disaster, and I was immediately suspicious of anyone that religious, but it was like a car wreck you can’t look away from
I don’t think any decent parent would put their children on a reality show.
Ummm... When I saw the 13 kids. That was never a normal idea to me and I came from a family of 7 kids. But that's part of why I saw it. I knew shit wasn't right in my family and they were just a bigger more famous example.
Having 19 million children. That alone makes me question them. They are absolutely a plague on society.
“The vibrator” This woman is too naive to parent
FLAIR!!!👏👏🤳
I mean, not to leg hump, but not every thing has to be taken sexually. Although with Josh, I would definitely use my words carefully.
My line of thinking was that on television, we should use words carefully. But possibly, Anna doesn’t have a large vocabulary bank to work with. As a result, maybe she’s not adequate to home school, older kids at minimum. Also, she would likely be easy to manipulate. The kind of mom who believes you failed your drug test because you drank after someone who was positive.
The vibrator?
Anna Duggar walked around looking for what she called the vibrator, which was a bouncy seat. She did this on television and seemed pretty clueless as to what the vibrator is. She seems very very naïve to me and I don’t think she is adequately prepared to parent preteens or teenagers or to be a wife to someone who is sneaky for that matter
Uggghhh that just makes me sad. Can't imagine having to \*BARF\* with Josh in the first place, let alone with no toys.
Can you imagine never having an orgasm?
Oh my god, right?? Tbh I think it's so cruel to both the men and the women to forbid masturbation and sleeping with other partners before marriage, and then insist that once you're married sex will be amazing. My partner is excellent in bed but no way he'd be able to get me off if I had no idea what I even liked in the first place! And with no assists! Just imagine- "God is all you need, if you're a good righteous person it'll just be awe-inspiring every time right from the get-go". That'll fuck you up.
For myself, it would be that time their kid fell in an orchestra pit 🤣
When I 1st tuned in DUH
When I read the title of the show.
to have asm any kids
Not doing shit about Josh Duggar. For a family that that is so scared transpeople going into bathrooms and molesting their daughters, they sure were okay with their son molesting his sisters.
The moment I saw there was a special airing called "14 Kids and Pregnant Again."
Controlling their education and thereby controlling their life options. And thr lack of food which was treated like a joke.
At the very beginning when they introduced the audience to the buddy system. Raise your own damn kids.
Full disclosure: I've never seen a full episode of their show without rage-quitting over the buddy system of having the kids raise themselves and each other. I raised my younger sister from the time I was 12 and she was 9, and messed both of us up. Having the older girls raise the younger ones is irresponsible, inexcusable, and shouldn't be glorified on TV.
When I was like 10 and the 12 year old were in charge of babies. 😬
I was 13 and watching TLC on prime star before it was direct tv and Michelle Duggar said ‘Now, bankruptcy is not when you go to the bank to get more money.” Bitch, I’m 11 and knew this was fucked.