Enough is Enough, Duggars

The Duggars made the cover of People this week with their addictive procreating. If you know me, you would know that I have made no qualms about voicing the fact that I think the Duggars are a bunch of weirdos. I know I’m being judgmental, or whatever, but I don’t see how this sort of child-rearing behavior can be viewed as anywhere close to normal. I have seen a couple episodes of their show and each time, I’ve walked away feeling icky. I watched one where the Mother Duggar and the daughter-in-law were both pregnant at the same time, going to their doctor appointments at the same time (where they talked about Mother Duggar’s conception date – Father’s Day – with their son and daughter-in-law in the room…and then Father Duggar got all “Woot woot, that’s right. I’ve got some super sperm. Give me some skin, son.” OK. So it wasn’t exactly like that, but it might as well have been), and the kicker, for me, Mother Duggar and daughter-in-law then went shopping for baby stuff together WEARING THE SAME OUTFIT.

WEIRD.

Anyway, so the Mother Duggar pregnancy that was being broadcast to the world was the pregnancy of their youngest, Josie, who, as you probably know, had a difficult entrance into this world. She was just recently given the ‘OK’ to go home after 6 months in the hospital. Given Mother Duggar’s difficult pregnancy due to preeclempsia the fact that she is 43-years old and will no doubt continue to face pregnancy difficulties due to her advanced maternal age, not to mention SHE HAS ALREADY HAD 19 PREGNANCIES, maybe should be some clue that it’s time to shut down the baby factory.

Apparently, judging by my esteemed celebitchy, the Duggar’s are members of the Quiverfull Christian movement, which is all about leaving all of your reproductive matters up to God and they will “typically organize family governance with the mother as a homemaker under the authority of her husband with the children under the authority of both. Parents seek to largely shelter their children from aspects of culture they as parents deem adversarial to their religious beliefs. Additionally, Quiverfull families strongly incline toward homeschooling and toward homesteading in a rural area.” There is a whole slew of books and such, how-to’s for raising your daughter’s to be “helpmeets” (helpmeet: wife and homemaker). My guess is this website (www.raisinghomemakers.com) is sponsored and/or written by the Quiverfulls.

Also on Celebitchy, was a link to this site, “No Longer Quivering,” in which Vyckie Garrison tells her story of leaving Quiverfull and the experiences she endured while she was a member. There are also many contributing writers who share their stories. It’s all very interesting. And a little scary.

Listen, I’m all for being home with the kiddos. I’m doing it. I love it. But raising my girls to serve a man and be a baby machine is not something I can even begin to wrap my head around.

And hey, it looks like Jennifer Aniston might want a kid. Maybe they should just give their next one to her?

– Abbi