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.
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