This show is on TLC and is about large families, A La Duggar. There was a small discussion about it in the Duggar family thread.
On the Road with 16 Children

I've seen the Episode about the Arndt Family. They have 14 children, all single births, and only one girl! They are a really great family and don't seem to be as "off" as the Duggars.
Arndt Family

This is another one of the Families featured so far. They have juicy info on the Heppner family which will be featured on the next episode.
Jeub Family

I have a strange facination with large families, which is odd, because Mr. Ohnotheydihent and I have 2 little boys and REFUSE to have any more. LOL... Maybe I'm living vicariously through these nutty fundies. Scary, I know! So, I'll happily watch them have more and more babies and pray that their uteruses don't fall out of their crotches (crotchi?) HAH!

Thanks for the links ohnotheydihent. I did not know that it is "Pro-life month" at TLC. Am sort of glad I missed the whole thing. Do these people know that you can be pro-life and pro-birth control at the same time? Very scary!

Yeah, this family was "better" than the Duggars. But, that's like saying a broken arm is better than a stroke. Both are less that ideal, but one is just less likely to kill you.

"Safe at Home" ministries... very similar to the Church of the Holy Basement. Both focus on the Quiverfull mentality. Both advocate isolating your chidlren from the rest of the "dangerous world".

Once again, we see that, despite the Arnst's claims that their children are individuals, the three oldest (and they are OLD) haven't left the home yet and went straight into the family business (court reporting).

On the positive side, this family DOES get out (albeit in one humongous group). They don't seem to have the rigid male/female division of labor that dictates the Duggar home. However, I suspect that the Arnst's have no choice but to have "men folk" doing woman's work because there are only two females. I did, however, love the fact that the daughter got to play softball and wasn't relegated to prairie garb.

Another positive: the parents really seemed to be parenting. No buddy system!! YAY! I really got the impression that the parents were the parents.

I really did enjoy the Arndt family. Much much much better than the Duggars. May I list some of the reasons? 1) No accent. A little harsh, I know, but damn that southern accent gets tiring. 2) Mom speaks in a normal tone!!! No high pitched talking. 3) Mom and Dad do the parenting, no buddy system. 3) A lot of individuality in the family. They wear normal clothes and have normal haircuts - not the bowl-like style of the Duggars. 4) The daughter does not have to wear prairie style dresses and bonnets.

I agree that there is not male-female division of labor but the mom did say that she "felt bad for making the boys do women's work" or something very familiar to that, but I was like, Mom - there are a lot of boys in that house!!!! They can all do work. And all work is work, there really shouldn't be gender lines.

I really liked Mark - the one with no hair. He was kinda cute and seemed to have the best personality.

I checked their website and it seems that no one else is allowed to attend their church services; they are only for Arndt family members and close friends. I am not sure how I feel about having a church and not letting anyone else attending. And if you spend some time on their website, they come off as arch-conservative.

What's interesting about the Jeubs is that if you read the Christmas letter on their website you see that the eldest left the fold to the point that the parents weren't speaking to her for a time. Since making the show they have reconciled but I thought that was something that I wouldn't have expected since so many of these families seem so insular. I don't see Ma and Pa Duggar handling dissent quite so well.

The Ardnts definitely seem less scarily cultish on the show, but as LynninMN points out their family website does paint a bit of a different picture.

edited to fix spacing

Anyone catch the Heppner Family episode tonight? 16 kids, 9 still at home. One word describes the parents for me: Hippies. The fact that the father left the mom and didn't see his first child for the first 11 months of her life, mom forgave him, they got back together and had 15 more is just incredible. They seemed waaaay more lax than the Duggars and really in touch with each of their children. Oldest daughter seemed to be a single mother? Or did I miss something? Overall they seemed very normal...except for the whole 16 kids thing ;)

I caught it, I was so excited to see another possibly snark worthy family, but then I watched the episode and I really like these people. They reminded me just of hippies too, I'm glad you said that cause I thought maybe it was just me but I got a boho vibe from the whole show.

They seemed much more genuine and sweet than The Duggars, but also a lot more realistic. They realistically presented there family and admitted things from the not so big of deal (they are always late) to more honest (dad wasn't around the first eleven months of the first childs life)

The children though politer than most looked normal, and thought there clothes may have been hand me downs, I personally couldn't tell, they all had different hairstles, and mom even wore some clothes that showed a bit of cleavage.

Some of the kids had wierd names such as Jemimah, but once again it seemed more hippie to me than fundie.

Yes, I saw the end and the oldest daughter had just told family that she was pregnant and she's single.

I'm glad someone started a topic on this show.

I thought the Heppner's were like the anti-Duggars, although they did mention God/praying/bible reading, but it was very subtle.

Spud (Dad) made me cry when the family left the island to go back home. He just seemed like he'd miss them so much.

Someone mentioned above about their clothes: They said that they get a lot of hand me downs from people in the area leaving bags of clothes by their van. The daughters said that some of the clothes are very nice/stylish and they don't really mind.

I really liked the mom. She seemed so 'devil may care' about all the kids/chaos, although they did mention the buddy system w/o referring to it as such. But that the parents did spend time with all the kids, so I wasn't skeeved out like the Duggars. And I thought Spud & her had a really fun relationship vibe, despite what seemed to be a rocky start, like when his watch alarm went off and he said 'it's time'. Also, I thought it was kind of funny that they specifically said they were using 2 methods of birth control after the first 2 kids, but got pregnant a bunch of times anyway.

One of the older boys was married & expecting their first kid, and at the end, the eldest girl came home and said she was pregnant, in a relationship that may or may not lead to marriage, and the parents were very supportive. The Duggars would've gone batshit crazy if that was them. 'Sin in the camp! Sin in the camp!

I saw the Arndt one earlier this month and they were interesting too. Maybe Duggar-lite. More normal, but still kind of slightly odd.

I really really liked this family. I watched this episode because it has local flavor for me. Warroad, MN is like an hour and a half from my home, and several of the kids go to school in Fargo, where I work. I thought this family was your average, every day, middle-class family that just happened to have a boatload of kids. All of the kids seemed to be encouraged to have their own lives and personalities (so ANTI-DUGGAR), were encouraged to leave the nest (17yo son going off to college), and got time with mom and dad. Their buddy system wasn't nearly as irritating as the Duggars. I really admire them for staying together, being obviously in love with each other (the parents, I mean), working through hard times, and giving their children opportunities to spread their wings. They had what, 4-6 kids out of the house, in college or college grads. That says that education is important to them, and even with 16 kids, they are finding a way for their children to go to college. That is admirable. And it seemed that the kids probably had outside interests, even though they were home schooled, as I know I saw hockey bags and stuff.

So to make a long story short, yeah, I liked 'em.

Not to mention that the home schooling was actually like real education - unlike the way the Duggar's homeschooling is portrayed. I was listening when the 13 year old was helping out the 12 year old with her math, and while they didn't show the worksheet, from what she was saying it sounded like they were dealing with binomials. 12 & 13 year olds doing algebra seems about right to me.

This family definetly did seem the most "anti-Duggar" that we've seen yet. I like how the boys are leaving home, going to college, etc. Neither the Duggars or the Arendts seem to encourage that kind of behavior. On a side note I did find it a little funny how they were perplexed that they kept having children using two forms of birth control. A little snip-snip could rectify that problem!

No joke. Grown adults should be able to find a 100% effective birth control method instead of throwing up their hands in resignation and continuing to pump out the babies.

That said, this family did seem more grounded in the world and not off in la-la land like the Duggars.

I can attest that the Heppners really are great people. (The cabin on the island? My family's cabin. My parents were on TV!) They have a ridiculous amount of kids, but they are some of the best-behaved and sweetest kids you'll ever meet.

But I will tell you this - as "subtle" as their religion may seem on the show, this family is VERY religious. I'm suprised they EVER used birth control, to be honest.

It's wierd when it's actually people you know on the TV. I keep writing and then erasing stuff because I don't want to invade their privacy too much. (Which in itself is strange, because they DID go on a TV show after all.)

I loved the Heppners - the Duggars seem like robots compared to them.

I kept wondering how Spud could have that many kids and no grey hair!?

It was cool how they all have biblical names like the Duggars but at least they don't all start with J.

Yes the oldest daughter is expecting a child and is not married.

You know, it’s interesting that you say this. The entire time I was watching this special, I was feeling like I wasn’t being presented the whole story. I’ll preface my future comments by saying the Heppner’s seem like a perfectly lovely family, and the children appear healthy and happy. That’s what’s important.

But…fucking editing. They skimmed over their religious beliefs, they skimmed over the parents serious martial problems alluded to by the older children and my gut feeling is that some of the older kids are out of the house at such a young age out of rebellion. I especially got that feeling about Jemima and not just because she’s “single and pregnant”. They were pushing it down my throat how close Jemima and mom are, but I wasn’t buying it.

Lastly, Mike (was it?), the charismatic kid that was all the way in California. He came back to be on TV. I’m not buying the bill of goods that he came back because he missed the family and didn’t have anything else to do.

Snarky enough?

I think Jemima and her mom are genuinely close. But I always felt sorry for Jemima - she's the oldest daughter in a family full of boys, and I think Jemima had to help her mom raise her brothers quite a lot - more than a normal kid - just because of the sheer volume of the children in that family. I can't speak for the rest of the kids because I don't really know them very well, but I do know Jemima. I think she was under an unusual amount of pressure as a kid, and that might have contributed to her leaving the house quite young.

ETA: I can tell you for sure that Joe didn't come back to be on TV. He came back in August because the other guys were going to go to school and Spud wasn't done building and needed more help. When he came back the original shoots were done, but the crew came back in November for re-shoots, and that's when Joe was added in. Just a little inside info :)

Well then, that was a good move because he certainly added a lotta spice to the program. Clearly the other kids were in aw of what he got away with. ;) The rebel.

Thanks for the insider info.

Thought ... the infamous Duggar kids all looks so similar (not just required matching clothing, etc.), but their facial features and coloring. I was surprised how different all the Heppner kids looked from each other, especially the boys.

I haven't seen the shows, but in looking at the family web sites I have a question. Does one of the Jeub family children have Down syndrome? It looks like it to me, but the photo is kind of small so I can't tell for sure.

Yes they seem to have more genuine bonds. It's not like "Oh yes, so and so enjoys pickles" they seem to have much more intimate knowledge of there children. Which brings me to there beliefs. I myself am a Christian so I don't think of this as a fault, I don't like them because it was glossed over, I just feel that there beliefs are more sincere perhaps and genuine, and they show there kids what they belive but they don't shove said beliefs down the kids throats.

I caught the first 2 shows and liked them. I enjoy seeing how the dynamics work in a large family, but I can't help but wish that they had also featured at least one family that didn't have the kids because of religious beliefs. When you look a little deep into the families, all three seem to be very religious and on board with at least a version of the quiverfull movement. I would have enjoyed seeing a family that had a dozen or more kids because they wanted that many, not because they believed they were led to have that many.

I wonder if a family like that even exists.

I'd be happy with just a non-fundie family. There's got to be a Catholic family out there that has a bunch of kids, but isn't completely overboard.

Or how about one of those foster families that ABC is always building houses for?

I caught two back-to-back episodes this afternoon on TLC. The first was the Healey family. 13 kids, 6 biracial kids from Mom's first marriage, and 7 with her current husband. Of the seven youngest kids, 6 were from 3 sets of twins, the youngest set being very premature and having medical issues. Overall, they seemed like a nice family.

The second episode was the Arndt family. Much more likeable than the Duggars, but definitely some underlying weirdness with boys 23, 24, and 25 years old still living at home. None of the boys (who were nice looking) were dating anyone. Not that that's a bad thing, just kind of odd that not one of them had met a nice girl to date. And again, the whole homeschooling thing just baffles me.

I don't mean to sound insensitive, but I really don't understand why people feel the need to have so many children. I love my kids greatly and they have enriched my life in so many ways. I love kids in general, I work as a teacher, but I just don't get these people.

And with a Catholic family, there's sure to be so drunken fun you want see with these fundies!

I've never understood the need to have that many children. I've Catholic, but from the South, and the largest families in our church had four (my own included). Our priest--who is a widower--had nine children though. He's old and seems to believe in the whole "no birth control thing". He preaches about it a lot. I just roll my eyes, because regardless of my faith, two was enough for me.

If I had followed the "quiverful" theory I could be on this show with a cross-over to "Intervention".

I finally caught the Arndt's. They were quite refreshing and a nice change from the Duggar robots.

I found the father's obsession with baseball a bit odd, but then I wasn't born with the "sports" gene.

I never knew court-reporting was so lucrative.

I think homeschooling is awesome and I commend and admire these mothers that can do it. I guess you can't look at is like a chore.

I was brought up in as a Christian so none of the religious overtones bother me.

Mark Arndt is a friend of mine. All 14 kids are nice and funny and all that. I would think the older guys all living at home was more of an oddity if I didn't still live at home (exigent circumstances, but the fact remains). Plus, my home is just my home -- I don't have my church right there, my jobs are not right there and, unlike the Arndts, I did not build my house myself from the ground up. I might be hard pressed to move out in that case, too.

TLC didn't really go into their names (or I didn't catch it), but not only do they all have Biblical names, they all have double first names and a middle name and all three names are from the Bible. Like Mark's full name is Mark-David Timothy. Ill try to remember all the others ...

Paul-Matthew Joseph
John-Andrew Michael
Mark
Luke-Joseph Peter
Jude-Peter Matthew
James-Michael Philip
Philip-Thomas Luke
Seth-Benjamin Mark
Jacob-Timothy John
Nathan-Stephen Paul
Mary-Elizabeth Arndt
Caleb-Nicholas David
Peter-John Benjamin
David-Paul Andrew

I think that's right, but I may have just made up the names for James through Seth.

Sports--yeah. They're big into softball and baseball, but also NFL football and hockey.

Religion--very Christian. They are vocal about it and definitely don't hide it, but they aren't militant about their beliefs, you know? I'm a Christian too, but the Duggars (as portrayed) leave a bad taste in my mouth..

I had something else, but I forgot it.

The mother is on a twin board I'm on and I honestly didn't belive she was real until the show aired the first time. Really... a German woman named Siobhan signs up with 11 kids, 2 sets of twins and pregnant with a third set? Yeah.

She seems like a nice lady from the posts I've read of hers.

I finaly saw the Arndt's show and I really liked them. They seemed like a really normal family (who happened to have a bus-load of kids, homeschool, and are religious). The parents seemed great, very involved with their kids and knowledgeable with their kids. I loved when the Dad Arndt mentioned about how he was on his way to do something important but he got caught up in a game of Candy Land before he knew what was happening -- I'd be hard pressed to believe that Jimbob Duggar would ever play Candy Land with his kids. The kids were all very well spoken and none of them had that comatose cult vibe that I get from the Duggars.

And somewhere deep down, I think that most sports-obsessed men would love to have enough sons to field an entire sports team of their very own. I know my SO would be thrilled to have his very own football team...granted, he's gonna have to find someone else to help birth and raise them 'cause I'm not doing it, but it's a nice thought.

I agree, it is somewhat odd. I have one brother and sister, we grew up in a religious home and we didn't date much either, I guess there is something to that kind of upbringing. In a way it's a bit refreshing from other reality shows that feature 20 somethings banging any chick they can get a hold of for no reason other that self-gratification.

I just happened to see the Arndt episode last night and I didn't realize this was a series with a bunch of families until I wandered over here today. Since this thread is only 2 pages long I read everything and I just have to comment on this:



Definitely. My dad is a Lutheran pastor and has problems with forms of birth control for religious reasons, but after my mom had five kids in just under six years they knew they needed to do something and so my mom had the surgery since that is about as 100% effective as you can get. Anyone who doesn't approve of things like the birth control pill should be okay with surgery because the whole idea about being against birth control is that if you believe that life begins at conception then it's not okay to use birth control that would end that life, but surgery would keep conception from ever occuring and thereby circumvent the problem.

Making a conscious choice to have as many kids as possible is one thing, but acting as if you have no control over it because of your religious beliefs is something that really annoys me. It makes others who object to some forms of birth control seem as nutty as they are just like how often pro-life people are associated with those who bomb abortion clinics.

Sorry, I just had to get that off my chest. The Arndts did seem fairly okay, though I agree that the older boys hanging around seemed a little odd. I know there is only five kids in my family, but my parents were/are eager to push each of us out when the time comes and as much as they love us, they are really looking forward to being on their own in a few more years. Since I was born when my mom was 20 and my dad was 21 and I'm now 23, they have a lot of good years ahead of them.

I thought the Healy family was great - very refreshing compared to the Duggars. You really got the sense Siobhan was a mom who took care of all her kids and didn't farm out that much, you saw her making dinner too. I was glad the youngest twins were improving.

I also appreciated that the Arndt mom was wearing shorts instead of a sack dress. I was wondering if they were super religious but wasn't smacked in the face with it like the Duggars. But I wasn't paying 100% attention to their episode, so maybe I missed it.

Like some of you, I just can't comprehend wanting or having this many kids. And on one salary? The mind boggles.

They are definetly fundies, complete with their own in-home church. But they seemed to have acutally found a reasonably sane balance. Or at least they did on the show. I'm sure that religion plays the defining role in their lives, but they didn't come off cult like as the Duggars do.

I do wish that they would encourage their kids to do something on their own or go to college. Yeah, the boys have jobs, and family businesses aren't bad, but most people don't live with everyone they work with. I noticed yesterday that most of the kids have a very odd cadence to their voices, almost singsongy, that neither parent has. That has to be learned from older siblings as they begin talking and there's no other influence to change it. It doesn't surprise me that the sons are still in the house and not married. Where would they meet a potential spouse? They they were home schooled, work from home, their church is in their living room and limited to family and a few friends, and I'm guessing their sports teams are all family or not co-ed. Unless they are arranging marriages for these guys, I don't see many marriages in the near future.

I enjoyed the Healeys too....what a contrast from the Ingalls-Wilder-Duggars!!

The voiceover mentioned the extremely rare statistics for one family having 3 sets of twins....but they never addressed whether the Healeys had used any fertility drugs or IVF.....was it all natural? Crazy!

I tuned in about 10 mins in to the show and I could NOT figure out what was going on. I thought both the mother and father were Irish and then where did the obviously black kids come from? I missed why her first marriage ended. And then the trip to Oktoberfest in full regalia? Odd birds but they seemed like a loving, happy, crazy family. I do hope they decide they are done, however. Especially with 2 fragile twins at home now.

The Arndt's are just so damn happy go lucky! Why are these mothers not totally insane? And how do you raise such a huge family on a home-based business salary?

Is it wrong that I saw "Jeubs" and read "Jebus"? And then wondered why the narrator was pronouncing it wrong?

The Jeubs seemed nearly normal. I'm not sure how I feel about having one birthday party for all the kids at once, but I guess it's better than not getting a birthday party at all. (Also, if you're invited to this party, do you have to bring ALL the kids presents?) I found it interesting that both parents' sisters seemed to kind of grudgingly accept Chris and Wendy's choice to have that many kids.

I saw part of the Arndts the other day, and I wouldn't call them the anti-Duggars, just a more modern version of them. I definitely think its weird that none of the older kids seem to even be contemplating dating or going out on their own and that they have a Church of the Holy Former Rec Room.

If I got it all correctly -

The older children are from her first marriage to a member of the US military. They never touched on WHY they divorced (or if the kiddos see their father.) The mom was German (hence the full Oktoberfest costumes) and felt it was VERY important to teach her kids about their German heritage. The dad/stepdad was Irish and she met him at a pub where they were in a band together.

I thought his family was a lot more chaotic than the other large families I have seen, but this may be due to the sheer volume of small children in their house.

The crying messy toddlers made me very glad I have none.

The Jeubs treatment of their oldest daughter floored me. Alicia is doing the same thing her mom did and their response is to totally cut her out of their lives. I understand having her move out, since she was an adult and her behavior was a poor example to the younger children. But not allowing any contact at all is extreme and is not at all in keeping with Jesus' message of love and forgiveness.

Nysha--I thought the same exact thing. The mother had kids at 15 & 18. Alicia was 20. I could understand them wanting to protect (ie set an example that this wasn't ok) for the little kids, but to cut her out of your life for, well, shit that happens, was just mean. They said they kicked her out because she wasn't going to church & doing bad things. But it seemed like maybe they were on their way to reconcilliation until she got PG and then they cut her out again.

Also, the dad made a comment at the party that even if the parents screwed up the party, their friends would understand and still be there and that was nice to know. But what a hypocrite for not applying that to your own daughter.

Other than that, they seemed more normal than the Duggars. I did find it funny that the dad's admin assistant is a 12 year old.

They said that they do see him but that he is in Cali but has been thinking of moving to Maryland.

No assistance was used to produce any of the twins. They mentioned 1 in 5 million for 3 sets of twins with 2 identical pairs but I've seen the stat 1 in 500 000 for 3 sets of any type of twins, haven't seen anything for 2 ident and 1 frat though

They youngest set are 6 months now and are apparently doing very well.

I could be wrong, but I think Alicia was actually 22, which isn't a big deal, but does make having a two year old that much less scandalous. I also thought cutting off all contact with her was extreme. Maybe she was doing something far beyond what they implied, but short of selling crack or turning tricks I don't know what would be so bad that they couldn't even talk to her, especially since I'd bet some of her behavior can be traced back to a relatively unstable early childhood. It didn't seem particularly Christian to me.

This episode also highlighted for me how much TLC shapes/edits these shows. If you go to the Jeub Family website, you can see that they're much more hard core (and, apparently, political) Christians than they come across on the show. Also, they are apparently friends with the Heppners.

There's an article on their website about Alicia and her son, who is bi-racial. I wonder if that was what the problem was. They have welcomed her back to the family after three years.

I don't understand why sometimes the girls were dressed normally, but at others in DuggarHouse on the Prairie garb. Can the girls only wear pants to a certain age?

I've seen the Healy show twice, and didn't catch that either time. I was wondering about the first husband myself.

The timeline confuses me greatly though. The oldest is 16 followed by 14, 12, 10, 8 and 7 (from the first marriage.) Mom said she married Kit when the oldest was 9. My math skills are admittedly weak, but this is how I figured it. Oldest was 9: OK, that means the rest were 7, 5, 3, 1 and newborn? Then they had the first set of identical (mirror image) boys, who I'm guessing are 5, the singleton girl (3 or 4)? the fraternal girls (2)? and the identical infant boys.

So, was mom on her own before that last biracial child was born? I'm soooo confused.

I liked the family though. I would go absolutely insane in all that chaos, but they really seemed to love every single one as an individual and welcomed each new one with a happy heart.

I also liked their idea of the 'buddy system'. Bring *us* diapers, etc.

Dad Jeub mentioned that one of his girls totally hated wearing pants. I think that the Jeubs may be on the edge of going completely Duggerville.

The vibe I got was that it was a little of that unfortunate step-child situation where the non-biological parent seems to be harder on the child that isn't theirs especially if the parents then have kids together. The mom seemed to take responsibility for her impact on her daughter from having her at the age of 15 and was making real efforts to reconcile while the dad was the one who put his foot down about tossing her out and who seemed to have to be dragged to any kind of reconciliation.

I want to believe his tears were genuine and that he hated the distance between him and his adopted daughter, but after everything else that was said about the situation I just couldn't quite believe he was 100% willing to come to the table and talk to her.

Other than that I felt like the family was pretty much okay. The dad did gain a couple of points with me for running a business for developing debating material for kids who are home schooled (go debaters!), but then lost them with, "Hey, maybe next year we'll be expecting #14!" I always get a little skeeved when a parent in one of these families seems overly excited about adding to their brood.

So far I'm thinking I'm actually liking the Arndts the best even if their sons are living at home. Living at home is better than being cast out. But the Jeubs are still above the Duggars at least.

Sorry, I confused the two families...

Carry on :)

That's not what they said last night. Are you sure you're not confusing them with the Heppners?

Gotta say I was surprised at the Jeub family cause they practically live in my backyard (o.k. 15 minutes up the road but you know what I mean) and I have never heard of them! I kept staring at them trying to rack my brain as to have I seen them at Walmart and such. The answer was no. Funny thing was I could place the Sam's Club they went to but the Walmart and Party store aren't the ones in Monument or N.Colorado Springs so that means they were driving all the way to Denver which didn't make sense to me.

Anyway have to say of the three families shown on "Kids by the Dozen" I disliked this family the most. Maybe cause I could see more Duggarish qualities? Their behavior with the eldest daughter was deplorable to me but here that kind of situation is pretty typical. The thing that also got me was that the 3 littlest ones had to sleep in the portacribs when one of the girls had two full sized cribs in her room! All my friends tell me that their older babies (3 months and older) don't sleep well on trips cause those portable cribs aren't too comfortable. Those poor babies have to sleep on them all the time!

With all those siblings she is sure to be an Aunt someday.

And I LIKED the families much more than I expected to.

If you go to their website, which was posted a couple of pages back, the latest entry talks about their reconciliation. There's more to come on the story, and I hope it's sincere, but it coincides nicely with the airing of the special.

I have 2 birthday parties coming up in the next 2 weekends for my 2 kids. I wish I could have only spent what the mom did on the party for 13 plus all the guests!

I think the key to being a fundy family with 16 kids is to be able to build your own home. Think of the mortgage payments you are saving! So, the trick is: have five or six boys first, wait until they are 15 or 16 then it's power drills away!!!!! But don't let OSHA near your house or you are in big big trouble.

I like the Arndt's the best just becasue they seem balanced and somewhat normal. On their website they come across as way more fundy than the tv show. I totally agree with the poster who said where are the older guys going to find a gril to date? They work woth dad at their home business, live at home and go to a church for "only their family and close family friends." That is according to their website.

I wonder if the parents charge the older boys or food or ask them to contribute to the food bill? That is a lot of food to feed grown men!