Thursday, June 14, 2007

SO, this is a little weird


First of all I have to say that I would consider myself an open minded person, and my personal belief is that everyone needs to make their own choices in life that are best for them, and stand up for those choices. SO, on that note I feel really hypocritical writing this post. However, ever since I saw a t.v. special on this family about a year ago, I have wondered, WHY?


Meet Jim Bob(who really has this name) and Michelle Duggar, and their 17 kids (one is on the way) whose names all begin with the letter J. Seriously, Joshua, Jana, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedediah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson and little Jennifer Danielle along the way. Now I ask you again, WHY? An article in the most recent issue of people magazine said they spend about $2,000 a month on groceries alone. Can you imagine the cost of feeding, housing, clothing, and educating that many children?


Now I must say, I love kids, and like the Duggars, I think children are the greatest blessing there is, but I DO NOT think it is healthy for their social,emotional and personal development to try to raise 17 children at one time, don't even get me started on the mom basically being pregnant for the last 20 years. the kicker is they waited four years to have kids, so they could have had 21 kids by now! They say in interviews that they plan to have more. I can not imagine how exhausted that mom must be, and as a side note, Jim Bob served in the Arkansas House of Representatives from 1999 to 2003 and was a candidate for the U.S. Senate in 2002.

4 comments:

Julia said...

I agree, that is a little out of control. I would love to have lots of kids, but definitely not more than I can take care of. I hate to admit this, but my first thought was "oh, they are from Arkansas."

To each his own, but seriously, pregnant for 20 years?

Kate said...

Okay- this is a little different- but look at the big picture- to mormons 17 children seems over the top- and to non-mormons 6-8 children seems over the top. Growing up in California with a family of 7 - we got some weird comments- and I am sure a lot of people thought we were different and crazy- To each his own and the beauty about having more children is your older ones take care of the little ones... Don't get me wrong- I don't plan on having 17 children anytime soon.

Jill said...

wowzer, i better get started

Steve and Liz Evans said...

Hi, you don't know me I'm Liz Hammer Evans and Dan and I grew up in the same ward. I found your blog through the Harrisons. I seriously had to comment about this article too. I think it is so weird. Anyway I just thought I would say hi to Dan and say that I agree, 17 children is crazy!