Today's Evil Beet Gossip

Don’t Worry, The Duggars Have Totally Got This

A photo of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar

After all, this is their twentieth baby. If they don’t get it by now, they never will, you know?

Anyway, I know how you guys just love to talk about the Duggars, and Michelle and Jim Bob just did an interview with People, so who am I to deprive you of that?

On celebrating: “Every child deserves to be excited they are a part of life. Even when we were having our 5th and 6th [kid] … we would celebrate each pregnancy.”

On getting pregnant despite all the risks: “If we felt that way, we would have stopped back with our second birth,” insists Michelle, 45, who experienced preeclampsia during her second pregnancy with twins John David and Jana, now 21. “There are many women who have experienced preeclampsia and have gone on to have more children. That whole mind set that you stop after a problem pregnancy isn’t realistic,” she continues. “You may encounter struggles along the way. You may not have a perfect pregnancy, but each child is a precious gift.”

On spending time with all the kids: “We homeschool, so we are around our children day in and day out,” says Jim Bob, 46. “Because I am in real estate, I am home and can be with the children a lot. When we go to the store or run errands, we take the kids one on one and we get to spend more time individually than a lot of parents do.” Michelle, who is under the care of a high-risk pregnancy doctor, agrees: “The beauty of being in a large family,” she says, “is that everyone works together as a team and it is about teaching our children responsibility.”

On critics:“There are a lot of good things we can learn from our critics,” she says. “We really believe we are following our faith and there are sometimes going to be people who don’t agree and we aren’t going to worry about the negative things stated. We are thankful for those out there who are happy,” says Michelle, “and we are grateful for each and every gift of a child.”

Ugh. No matter how many times the Duggars talk about their lives, I still always get this totally creeped out, unnerving vibe. Right?

And, ok, here’s my thing: you guys can talk all day long about these people’s choices and the social implications and all that – I’m not being facetious here, really, please talk about it, I enjoy reading about it – but that’s not my main concern. My main concern is about those babies. You guys are smart, I don’t need to tell you about the risks a child of a 45-year-old mother faces or about how devastating it would be for all those children to lose their mother because she let God make the call for her uterus. And I’m not trying to pass judgement for their lifestyle (at least, at this moment I’m not), I’m just saying that we should all just think about the children, both those who are already alive and those who have a high probability of some kind of trouble. Is that too much to ask?

And here’s where we debate about the Duggars again.

28 CommentsLeave a comment

  • I’m sorry, but considering the fact that mother and child hardly survived the last pregnancy I think it’s incredibly foolish (and selfish) to have another child. How highly do they regard the lives they’re bringing into this world if they are willing to risk not only the mothers life but also their future child’s life as well? Ugh… The Duggar’s totally gross me out.

  • Please. We live in a culture that condones abortions for any reason under the sun and people want to tell one woman she’s selfish for being excited about being pregnant at 45? The Duggars know how to value life better than most families in America.

    • “Condones abortions”? The fuck? Have you seen how Planned Parenthood is closing down, have you seen how women are being sent to jail for having an abortion? People with a mindset like yours are more dangerous to life than those women who sadly have to go through an abortion.

      • Quite the contrary…. I believe judging some one for having allot of children and calling them ”selfish” is not only rude and callous but blatantly ignorant .. Pro Choice individuals can be just as judgmental and pushy about their values on others as well. Last I checked Planned Parenthood was being shut down due to budget cuts .. Not because people didn’t agree with them.. Also last I checked it wasn’t shut down at all!! I find it hilarious how the pro choice agenda toots that women should be respected for her ”choices” she makes in life.. But then a women ”Michelle Duggar” who is making her own choices in life that she is happy with , an these pro choice individuals are mocking her and calling her selfish.? Just because it is not a lifestyle YOU wanted to live doesn’t make her wrong .. I think a mind set like that is threatening to the peaceful function of society as well .. Respect her choice to !!
        Good Day

  • i LOVE these people!!! I do! I have only seen the show a couple times, but these are genuinely GOOD people and i don’t understand why they are so hated on?? Because they are hardcore Christian?? Sure, they have 19 kids…but they aren’t relying on those kids to make their living, and buying Audi’s and getting plastic surgery…the teenage daughters aren’t getting pregnant and sucking off the welfare system. The kids work, help each other, and wear hand-me-downs. These people display the kind of behavior parents should WANT their kids to watch and emulate…unlike Bad Girls Club or the Real World where they get drunk, swear, and get naked. These kids don’t have ANY sense of entitlement whatsoever, they realize they have to WORK for a living…what a beautiful thing. i just don’t get the hate for THEM when there are so many other celebs out there that are way more deserving.

    • REALLY moi :These kids don’t have ANY sense of entitlement whatsoever, they realize they have to WORK for a living…what a beautiful thing.

      Those kids don’t have any sense of self or a childhood is more like it . They have to raise their siblings so their parents can keep producing like rabbits.

      Funny how you chose the extremes in our society to compare them to instead of good, honest, caring and responsible Christians with a capital C who chose to have only as many children as they THEMSELVES can support and raise and not dump that responsibility off on their children ! I guess sense you like extremes it should be expected that you would compare this couples lifestyle to another extreme lifestyle.
      It figures only a man would approve of this extreme radical religious belief that woman should keep producing until their uterus’s burst and they die leaving the responsibility to raise all those children to their older children who should be living a life of a child not a parent .
      These children never asked Michelle and ,”old horney can’t keep it in his pants,” Jim Bob to give them all these siblings to be responsible for and they shouldn’t be expected to learn to be parents and homemakers when their just children ! They are robbing these kids of a childhood ! We are not back in the old days any more where couples had large families to help on the farm .

      I think you can teach children responsibility without making them responsible for your crazy decision to have all these so called children for Jesus that they will raise to vote for the far right crazies like we see with Buchman . These people are dangerous in that they have some false ideology that tells them they have to have all these children so that they can one day see their ideology made into law in this country. They are crazy fanatics !
      I am ashamed of Michelle for allowing herself as a woman to have her body and mind used and abused by this man under the pretense of religion and God wants things this way . What a horrible message she is sending out to young girls .
      I honestly feel so sad for the females in that family and the males who will be taught to treat a woman as chattle !

  • Good Lord. We are so past sustainability. The 7 billionth (BILLIONTH!) person was reported born last week. You don’t value life by making certain that it can’t be supported. But a cork in it, literally, Duggars.

    • Love this! I get dagger eyes for not wanting children. One of the many reasons I have to give is that there are just too damn many of us. I feel like a lot of people think overpopulation means “oh no! crowded sidewalks” and fail to see that we are actually running out of resources.

  • Here is something my friend wrote to try to help explain the Duggars’ point of view:

    I am sure she is placing that [her health] in God’s hands and feels like He is better to handle that decision than she is. If you believe that God is in control of life and death this makes perfect sense. She’s having a baby (that she believes God blessed her with) not jumping off a bridge to leave 19 kids motherless. Also if you believe as she does that life begins at conception, then there is no difference between a child born or not yet born.

    • How come she gets to place her health and childbearing decisions in God’s hands, but then she also gets to place the well-being of the resultant children in the ultrasound technologists’ hands, the nurses’ and doctors’ hands, in the pharmaceutical industry’s hands, etc..???? Pick one or the other!

    • Oh I know what these people believe nobody has to repeat the coolaide mantra to me !
      What I have a hard time with is why they don’t realize that God gave them a brain and the technology to use for a reason ! In short he gave scientists the intelligence to create things like birth control pills to save woman from premature deaths from ruptured uteruses from having too many babies .

      Forget being responsible for over populating the earth to where there is not enough food and resources to sustain all of us ,these people are just too lame to figure that one out ! I guess in their belief there is no room in understanding they are killing Eden and eventually themselves .

  • If this moron is placing her vagina in god/her imaginary friend’s care, then he has some explanations to do. Sick on all levels.

  • Look. If it was up to /God/ she would have died in childbirth the last time. /Medicine/ saved her and the baby, not God. Perhaps the preeclampsia was God’s way of telling her to retire the baby factory. If she’s that dependent on God, then let him deliver the baby and leave the doctors out of it.

  • i think the duggars should have stopped with josie i mean come on she had difficulty with her birth aint that a sign to stop having kids? she has been pregnant for 17 or 18 years straight i dont think she has to push anymore, she just opens her legs and they drop out. i still dont think she has quality me for every single kid by themselves, i really think they are depriving there kids from time alone with mom and dad not with the older children..the way the girls dress is very ugly, they need to learn how to dress, stop having kids and have quality time with the rest of your kids, the more yu have the less time you have for each child.

    • When you figure in the hours in the day they already don’t have enough time to spend with each individual child . I do believe they know this and don’t care because they think its quite alright to rob the older children of their childhood to be taught to raise the babies for them.

  • These people are flat-out crazy.
    Jim Bob, an obvious genius, claims that the world is NOT overpopulated (it’s a “myth”), and that there’s lots of open space in Arkansas. How that forgives them for having TWENTY children, I have no idea. There aren’t enough resources on this planet to sustain the 7 billion people and more to come.
    Then he goes on to chastise a Scottish atheist about “God has a plan for you” and how the earth is the perfect distance from the sun “because God keeps everything under control”. Love how he figures out astronomy all by himself (of course, NASA and scientists had nothing to do with the discovery of this) and then gives God all the credit.
    Also, the ENTIRE family just “loves” gospel and classical music only, no interest in any other kind of music, because they’re just that lucky to have 19 individuals who are exactly the same. Yep.
    They are straight-up batsh*t.
    Wildflower has it right, that medical science decided that Josie would live, not God. Why they keep thanking God I have no idea. If God “gave them” doctors to save her life, it’s not outside the realm of reason to think that God “gave them” other people to say STOP HAVING BABIES, DAMMIT! Why does it have to be menopause, death, or spontaneous infertility that says enough is enough? God gave you a reasoning brain for a purpose, He wants you to USE it! All this “giving it up to God and letting Him make the decisions” crap is a pure cop-out.

  • I think they are both selfish , stupid people but especial old Jim Bob who can’t seem to keep it in his pants ! Any responsible man would never risk his wifes life with so many pregnancies .
    Yes those children born to a woman of Michelle’s age are at risk and they are selfish in not considering this . I am also sure Michelle’s doctor worned her long ago of the possibility of rupturing her uterus with so many births so close together .
    Its not like they don’t have any children they all ready have more than they can parent which is another issue ! Their children are forced to become responsible for taking care of all these babies . Their children didn’t ask them to have all these children so why should they be expected to parent them. It hurts my heart when I see a child who should be playing and acting like a child, parenting their siblings because that is what their parents expect,,,no,, demand they do !
    It also bothers me to see girls raised to be subservient to men .
    There is something wrong with a religion that is so afraid of female power that they try to stifle it from a young age . These female children are brought up from day one to be homemakers , wives and mothers who have no power of their own and don’t need to have careers ! The sons are taught they have all the power over woman and should impregnate their wives as often as they can to make these worriors for Jesus !
    Frankly IMO these two people are creepy and sick .

    • I totally agree with you. How stupid can they be. They need to stop using religion as an excuse. I think that they are just out for money, considering they have a T.V. show. They are soooooo selfish.

  • are you kidding me?!???? I have never seen such GREED. Be grateful for the kids you have and stop making more!!! What a slap in the face this must feel to people who desperately want ONE child but are unable to conceive.

  • Enough is enough, there going to far there yougest already have problem. They need to learn that if you really wanna have sex you don’t have to get pregnant

  • When their kids are asked what their mother does they can respond: “Mommy has clown car for a vagina”. Maybe when she has this one they’ll finally cue the circus music.