» 14 Children and Pregnant Again! Options

[Dree]

An hour of my life that I will never get back. But I must know if anyone else was both as compelled and repelled as me.

[PorkFat]

I watched, and was totally squicked at the idea of having 15 kids. I have two, and I don't plan on having more than three, because I just don't think I could handle it. Either Mrs. Duggar is a saint, or she was putting on a good face for the camera. Everything was just a little too perfect. All the children were perfect and precious and hard-working and helpful? I find that hard to believe. She homeschools all of her precious angel babies and everyting is just hunky-dory? 14 kids holed up together in a tiny ass house together everyday? I don't think so.

I also find it hard to believe that they don't recieve some sort of public assistance. They kind of glossed over the financial question with vague answers about real estate investments and living debt-free. That's great, but it is still hard to believe that you can have 14 kids, one parent working, and be okay without some help from the government.

I recently saw on CNN that Mrs. Duggar recieved the mother of the year award. It does seem like she is doing a great job. I just can't help but look at the whole situation with skepticism and incredulity.

[purplefishy]

Yikes! I watched this one too, (it was oddly...hypnotic) and I felt that there was something seriously amiss here. She seems like a really sweet lady and the kids all seem well-behaved (given the amount of parents who can't even raise one well-behaved child, this is an accomplishment). Maybe it was their clothing. Someone needed to send them all to What Not To Wear, and get them out of those plaid sacks and matching trousers! The only plus is that you could pick them out in a crowd if they ever got lost.

[katymo]

These people are fucking crazy! And yes I was both compelled and repelled by it all. $823.00 in groceries??! Holy shite. They seem to have their routines down, but when they are all older there's no possible way all of those kids can have the kind of dedication and attention they need from just their two parents no matter how great everyone is. I cringed when the mother got to talking about the littler ones, she totally blanked and couldn't remember a damn thing about them!

I was really wondering about the finances too, WTF? Building a house that big? Gotta be the mob.

Everything was just so creepy, especially the wife.

[Agent Sculder]

What creeped me out was that these kids really have no contact with people who aren't exactly like themselves. Just about the only people they know outside their family are other fundamentalist Christian families. God forbid they ever have to make contact with the outside world because they'd be lost. Since I am an evil person I kept thinking, "I wonder what would happen to these kids if they were exposed to regular people." These kids don't watch TV, don't seem to know of any other music besides hymns, and don't seem to do much reading except for schoolwork and the Bible.

Also, the clothes just weirded me out. I just got a very culty vibe from all of the kids. Hearing all the girls talk about wanting to grow up and have lots of kids made me want to go down there and tell those girls a woman can have a life outside the home and still be a good mom. And tell them about birth control.

[jwienand]

Glad to see I was not alone in watching this today. I too was mesmerized and yet completely squicked out by the whole thing.

When the Mom started talking about the laundry and "proper" clothing choices. Being modest enough - part of which I can understand with all the Britney Spears type clothing out there. However, did the girls ever wear anything besides those Little House on the Prairie type dresses? I never saw them wearing normal kid clothes ( jeans, tshirts, sweats, etc) . I do admit I was flipping back and forth but it just seemed very weird and cult like.

Agent Sculder - great minds think alike, the clothes just made me crazy!

This post has been edited by jwienand: Nov 6, 2004 @ 10:06 pm.

[priscillarw]

I saw the title of this show in the forum and was intrigued-when was it on? What channel? Will they play it again? I must see for myself how one woman can keep her sanity amidst 14 children. Sweet mother, I've got one and she's waaaayyy more than I can handle. Thanks!

[Bec]

It played on The Learning Channel at noon today, according to my TV listings. I didn't even realise there was something like this until stumbling on the thread here. Sorry I missed it, sounds oddly fascinating.

[Knee High Boots]

I am so sorry that I missed this! I just checked my TiVo to see if it will be on again soon and - sadly - it is not on the schedule. Damn.

I've seen a few TV segments on the Duggar family - I think they made national media when she was awarded Mother of the Year. Way to, uh, give birth a lot, SuperFertileWoman! </sarcasm>

I'm at once fascinated and repulsed by this family. I can't turn away because I am intrigued by the cultish, everyone's-so-happy vibe the Duggars exude. It's as if they're all on the 'ludes the way they're so at peace with having so many siblings. Not one fight? Please.

What creeps me out the most is the fact that all - ALL - of the kids' names start with the letter J, as in J for Jim Bob, the dad. Not ONE freaking kid has a name that starts with the letter M for Michelle, the mom. <shudder> That, plus that the females all look like the sister-wives I've seen in TV news segments on polygamist families (long hair, plain dresses), freak my S out completely.

I call BS on the name given one of the girls: Jinger. Yes, JINGER, pronounced 'Ginger.' Whatever. Talk about reaching.

[Agent Sculder]

One thing I found rather hilarious was that even though there are a whole bunch of boys, it wasn't until almost the newest kid that a boy got the name John. On the show, they even exaplined why all the kids have names that start with J. The first kid was Joshua, with a J (of course) to be like his dad. Then there was a set of twins, and they had picked out another J name for the boy. Mom and Dad were concerned the girl would feel left out if her name didn"t start with J. And then once she started pumping out the kids, they felt if any of the kids had a name that didn't start with J , he/she would feel left out.

[cjane]

I've seen a few TV segments on the Duggar family - I think they made national media when she was awarded Mother of the Year. Way to, uh, give birth a lot, SuperFertileWoman! </sarcasm>

Maybe they were judging by quantity rather than quality?

[IOU_Payne]

Why was I expecting Ty with his bullhorn to run in and yell, "GOOD MORNING DUGGAR FAMILY"? If this isn't an audition tape in the making, I don't know what is! All they have to do is dump the uber-smarmy VO, which reminded me of "Unwrapped" or "Top Five".

[mom2tee]

OK, I realize that a lot of this was too good not to snark on. And granted their lifestyle is completely foreign to me. But they seemed happy enough, the children appeared to be loved and cared for and smart, and from what I remember from the media coverage back in May when she won mother of the year ... they really don't take any assistance.

Snark if you want, but that is damn impressive in today's handout-laden society. Sure they seemed a little off, but probably more old fashioned than anything else. I was pleasantly surprised to see the big playset delivered and the joy the kids seemed to have over it. I could go on and on to about the names, the clothing, the hair (where is Nick Aruso (sp?) when you need him. But all in all, they seemed happy. Wouldn't be my choice to squeeze out 15. I am stopping at 2! But after years and years of plastic reality t.v. people on my tube, not to mention news reports of child abuse, neglect, and don't even get me started on the Britney Spears generation, this was oddly refreshing.

Carry on ...

[Dree]

What creeped me out was that these kids really have no contact with people who aren't exactly like themselves

Yeah, I was screaming in frustration when they said they don't even go to church, they have church in their HOUSE! These kids are absolutely unprepared for the outside world.Actually, I thought a lot about how this was a timely show given the election results.

I figured the clothes were extra unflattering so that they could grow into them for years and years (plus the modesty thing).

Here are the things I was wondering:
- The dad said he was a car salesman, I wondered if one would get a better price from him since God wouldn't like him cheating people.
- The parents kept taking off and leaving the babies alone, like when they went grocery shopping and went Michelle went into labour.
- I wondered about the $$$ too - 7 computers!

[i mean cmon]

My Grandmother had 15 children. I didn't see this show but from what i've read here, this family runs differently than my father's did. The children were a little bit more spread out in his. I think it's a 30 year difference between the oldest and youngest. So even though they had 15 children, all 15 were never in the house at the same time. Perhaps this family had one or a few sets of twins so it's pushed this children together. Also, my dad's parents didn't force these kind of religious values on the children. Maybe it's important with a family that big, though. When my dad was a kid it was okay if you lived in a small town to just let the kids out all day and let the town raise them, but something like that probably wouldn't be as accepted these days. I'm in no position to judge another person's parenting, since i'm only just about to turn 20 and am years away from a baby. So I'm not going to criticise either family.