Friday, November 12, 2010

19 Kids--Please stop counting!

Now, it's not in my nature to pass judgement on people I don't know...oh wait, I must be thinking about someone else's nature. I have a blog, thus I not only enjoy passing judgement on others I feel strongly that other people will enjoy my judgements. This past Thursday I was attending a Professional Development course on something technological. I got there early so I started playing on the computer.

I don't typically have time to read the blurbs on news home pages...and by don't have the time, I mean I have important FaceStalking to do. But I had nothing to do waiting for this thing to start, so I perused the headlines and one caught my eye. It was about the Duggars. Amy Jo and I do not care for the Duggars, despite never having watched their show (currently called 19 Kids & Counting, but previously known as 18 Kids & Counting, and 17 Kids & Counting before that). I guess if you're the type of lazy parents who only have 16 kids, you're pretty SOL when it comes to reality TV.

I have a lot of issues with this family. I'm going to completely side-step the issue that the man's name is Jim Bob. Every one of their kids' names starts with the letter J. I find that obnoxious. I don't care for it when parents of normal sized families do it ("and here are our kids, Rachel, Ryan and Rebecca"). I don't understand the need for some sort of gimmick with children. Is it an attempt to reuse monogrammed items? I don't know and I don't want to know.

Also, who needs to have that many kids? I'm not remotely down with what I know of childbirth, I can't imagine what kind of person elects to do that 19 times. I appreciate the desire for a big family (although this family's size is ridiculous), but why not do as Travie McCoy instructed us in Billionaire, "pull an Angelina and Brad Pitt and adopt a bunch of babies who ain't never had shit"?

Here's Amy Jo's big thing with these people: our planet is severely overpopulated (you should watch her reaction when people try to dispute this...or have her retell you a scenario in which this happened) and there are plenty of children out there who need to be adopted and there are all these people just cranking more out babies like Model T's on a Ford Assembly Line. I would like to claim ownership for that similie, that was all me. She thinks that people should have two kids and adopt if they want more. All in all, I think it's a solid plan.

I'm with her on the overpopulation and the thousands of children who need to be adopted out there, but I'm also terrified that this woman would put her life and the life of her baby at risk time and time again with these pregnancies. There comes a certain point at which it is more and more dangerous for a woman to have children; there are health risks both physical and mental/developmental. I'm surprised they have a doctor who advises her to keep going.

I could go on and on, but that's not even the point of my post! In addition to reading the article (which was actually about their oldest son and his wife now expecting their second child) I also read the comments. I always do, because they crack me up. I thought, "Oh man, there are going to be some awesome comments about these lunatics!" Ummm, let's talk about the number of people who commented in defense of the Duggars. Is this country full of people who think having this many children is acceptable or admirable?

I don't even have a way to end this post because I'm still shocked that so many people thought it was completely fine for a couple to just keep having babies and that anyone who thought otherwise was a "Hitler Nazi". That was an actual term used by one of the pro-Duggars, "no more than 2 kids? you must be a Hitler Nazi/" What does that even mean? Like there's some other branch of Nazism, not affiliated with Hitler? Or that there are levels of Hitlerism that will affect our standing on Judgement Day? "Well, I'm no saint but I'm not a Hitler Nazi either...at best, I'm a Manson Nazi or Son of Sam Nazi. No biggie."

1 comment:

Mudpudles said...

I have only watched the show one time because I was curious as to what type of people would do this in these most uncertain times. Then she opened her mouth and it was clear to me in that moment; home schooling, religious, ignorance. How do they support these children? Are they relying on donations? Oh wait, they have their own TV show! How silly of me. Perhaps I’m the ignorant one.

I was especially irritated that this so called “mother” has the audacity to then rely on her older children to care for her younger children! Isn’t she forcing them into her own reality – her own choices of having these 19 children? I believe all kids should be out living their own lives; finding their own way in this world. They’re her slaves. Slaves because she has a lack of sexual control.

It’s disgusting what they’re doing. There are too many homeless children in this world starving, living on the streets, alone, cold, and homeless….loveless. Why doesn’t she shut her legs and open her heart to an orphan child?

I wish TLC would stop running such programs. Now I hear they are airing a program about a polygamist man married to three women or something. Isn’t that against the law? What is TLC thinking?

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