Happy Mother's Day: Woman Pregnant With 18th Child

[philosophie_en_rose]

http://www.newsweek.com/id/136148

It's a happy Mother's Day for an Arkansas woman — she's pregnant with her 18th child.

Michelle Duggar, 41, is due on New Year's Day, and the latest addition will join seven sisters and 10 brothers. There are two sets of twins.

"We've had three in January, three in December. Those two months are a busy time for us," she said, laughing. The Duggars' oldest child, Josh, is 20, and the youngest, Jennifer, is nine months old.

The fast-growing family lives in Tontitown in northwest Arkansas in a 7,000-square-foot home. All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled.

Duggar has been been pregnant for more than 11 years of her life, and the family is in the process of filming another series for Discovery Health.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

1. environmental disaster

i respect her right to choose but this is very selfish

[philosophie_en_rose]

7. It seems unhealthy.

I do respect her right to choose, but I don't think every choice is a wise one. It must be very hard on the body to constantly be pregnant.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

12. hard on her body is her choice, but i think hard on the environment and the rest of us

makes it a selfish choice.


you know what i mean? i think everyone has a right to destroy/decorate/nourish/whatever their own body. i also think people have societal obligations to be less selfish.

[grace0418]

24. Exactly. And while I can argue from experience that a mother who must divide

her attention between 10+ children cannot possibly provide the kind of one-on-one attention that each child needs, I will set that argument aside for the moment. I will also set aside the fact that it's really unfair to the older children to expect them to take over raising their younger siblings when they are only children themselves.

Let's just assume that one man and one woman can properly attend to and raise 10 (or 18 or 20) kids without forcing the older children into indentured servitude. If they really want to raise that many children, then they should be adopting children who have no homes or parents. They can have a couple themselves to experience the joys of pregnancy and birth, if that's so important to them, then adopt the rest.

[JoDog]

26. Not fair to the older kids

My best friend was the oldest of four, and she essentially raised her siblings and ran the house, as her mother was passed out drunk for most of her childhood. My friend never really got to be a kid. Heck, she was barely able to go to school. After she finally moved out of the house, her parents had to hire a cook, a maid and a gardener just to take over all the stuff she did.

This "mother" isn't really mothering her children. The older kids are assigned younger kids to take care of practically every hour of the day they are not being homeschooled.

As to how they can pay--I don't believe there is no cap on how many child exemptions you can claim on your tax returns. With that many kids, that family is probably not paying any federal or state taxes. In other words, you and I are helping to pay for them.

[stuntcat]

39. selfish

exactly. make more and more ME's, the world can't have too many ME's x(

My mother-in-law thinks that I'm selfish for not having the baby for her to cuddle. She's too stupid to imagine the year 2090 that all the cute little things get to live to, too stupid to realize it's selfish for us to make more while so many kids are starving.

[Sheets of Easter]

57. oh, but it's selfish NOT to have the babies!!

That's what your garden-variety fundie would tell you.

[Droopy]

2. It's seems like you'd have to be a millionaire to support such a family.

7000 square foot house? I bet that costs a bundle even in Arkansas.

[philosophie_en_rose]

3. The built the house.

They bought two sets of a "build your own house" kit and had friends construct it for them.

There was a documentary on the Discovery Channel about it. Plus, they eat the cheapest sort of processed foods. It's all condensed soups and mayo.

[Deja Q]

29. If they built their house w/ rock and roll, like the song about the city, would they be better off?

:scared:

[Arugula Latte]

41. Tater tot casserole...

Ambrosia for fundies, apparently.

[LynneSin]

17. Why do you think they're out there promoting their family on Discovery

This guy is a failed politician and hardly making the income to support 18 children.

[CottonBear]

47. They are real estate agents and they are apparently debt free.

They also hawk some sort of evangelical financial kit that purportedly teaches you how to make money.

[Breeze54]

4. But The Today Show said it was their 20th child!!

Now I've lost count... I wonder when they'll call it enough? That's just frigging insane!!

[philosophie_en_rose]

6. Meh

When you have twenty kids, you're bound to misplace one or two.

My parents only have a few kids and can't even remember our names. :)

[Breeze54]

10. I was called every name in the book by my Mom

She'd say all the kids names when trying to call one and I was 6th in line! :P

"Mar.., Cha..., Al.., Jam..., Jea..., Li..., Mic...!" :rofl:

[BarenakedLady]

13. I do that and I only have 3.

My mother did it with me and my brother and the animals. LoL.

[Cabcere]

53. Haha, my dad does that, too

:) He has also been known to call me by his sister's name, and I have it on good authority that he has even called my aunt by my name once or twice, lol. :P Good times. :hi:

[FloridaJudy]

70. So did mine

And she only had two kids. Half the time, she ended up calling me "Jeannie" and Jeannie was the dog!

Unfortunately, I've done it myself with only one child: his name and his father's are very similar. I think you have to do stuff like that to get your Motherhood certificate.

And Happy Mothers' Day, all.

[BarenakedLady]

5. Egads

:crazy:

I respect their right, but jeeez. They've become a sideshow.

[PassingFair]

8. Thank goodness families like these are RARE...

that said, you can't tell people how they should
reproduce, and the kids ARE cute.

They seem to be happy.

Unfortunate that they are probably breeding
more republicans, though.

[zanne]

9. I thought the big announcement would be about adopting! nt

[zanne]

11. My father was one of 20 children. Picture.

Don't they look deliriously happy? :scared:

[Chan790]

30. Don't tell me...your father's the one dressed like a nun.

Just Kidding. Did you ever notice that in large families, there is always one that becomes clergy?

My grandfather was youngest of 22 and died having siblings he never met.

[zanne]

40. OMG!

Your grandfather's family tops my father's family! I know that in French Catholic families, there was supposed to be at least one priest. Boys were often sent of to the seminary at a very young age whether they wanted to go or not. (My father is in the first rown, in the middle.)

[Chan790]

50. Yeah, but it took great-grandpa 3 wives to beat your father's family.

Childbirth killed at least one of the first two. Papa (my grandfather) was born and raised in NH. I'm guessing that there wasn't much else to do in 1890's/1900's rural New Hampshire.

The priest thing is common in large Irish families as well...my stepfather was supposed to be the one to be a man of the cloth but he refused and being it was the late 1970s/early 1980s it wasn't like they could force him. I, in turn, was also pressured in that direction by my extended family but my parents' put the kibosh on that.

[YankeyMCC]

14. Whoa!

Ok , I tried making some comment but I really don't know what's appropriate, they say they are happy, so good for them.

[LynneSin]

15. I was getting emails from Discovery Health and cancelled after I got one about that family

There is nothing healthy for either the mother OR the earth with having 18 kids. The fact that Discovery is promoting this family is bullshit - it's a way of glorifying a bizarre lifestyle that will on have a negative impact on this country.

Yes, some of our parents & grandparents had large families. My grandmother came from a family of 15. But her family never had the benefits of family planning and children were used as workhands on the family farm. I'm not saying that large families are bad but 18 is a bit ridiculous

And clearly this Duggar family does NOT have the income to support their family hence the constant promotion on TV. I cancelled the Discovery email and sent a complaint to Discovery's lack of respect for or planet by promoting this bullshit!

[grace0418]

20. As the youngest of eleven children, I say this to you LynneSin:

A-FREAKING-MEN! There is no earthly reason to give birth to this many children. If they're so effing Christian, and such good parents, and can afford this, why don't they adopt some children instead of burdening our overcrowded planet that much more?

[LynneSin]

25. well glad your parents did 11

And honestly there's nothing I can do if a family wants that many kids - their body, their choice.

But I'm tired of the media promoting this like it's something good. Like when a family has an extreme number of babies at one time. Women are not pig sows breeding large broods and we should not use our media to promote women to be just that.

[Megahurtz]

61. AGREED! n/t

[Ellen Forradalom]

16. How much time in her adult life has she NOT been pregnant?

Like, 6 months?

Man oh man.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

18. If you have 17, the 18th is free.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

19. ...

:rofl:

[AlCzervik]

23. pffft

:rofl:

[BarenakedLady]

33. Teehee

:rofl:

[grace0418]

21. Someone said it better than I: "It's a vagina, ma'am, not a clown car." n/t

[bicentennial_baby]

22. Here you go:

[Erin Elizabeth]

42. Unless I miscounted that was back when they ONLY

had 14 kids!

I wonder if they can even remember when they had like two or three kids.

[Rabrrrrrr]

27. LOL! My first thought was "I bet it's that Dugger chick!"

[Deja Q]

28. "Discovery Health"? Try "Discover Prophylactics" instead!

It's her choice, but when choices have an impact on others, surely there comes a time when other people can have at least a token opinion?!

[Deep13]

31. Odds are that two of those children will be gay.

How does that fit into their god stuff?

[SacredCow]

34. My guess...

is that they'll be of the repressed and self-loathing type. I pity them. :(

[Deep13]

35. Maybe not.

Odds are two will be religious skeptics-atheists, agnostic, pantheistic etc.
Perhaps the repressive nature of their family life will spur a greater-than-average number to reject the religious teachings of their parents.

[Jimbo S]

52. Statistical term: "The Law Of Large Numbers".

Even if probability p is small enough, a large sample size n will likely result in an occurance (i.e. homosexuality).

[Deep13]

60. At least four will be Chinese.

Oops, maybe not. :crazy: :7

[gilpo]

32. I think this was not the expected result of build it and they will come..

But they can finally use that baseball field they built in the back yard....

[stuntcat]

36. environmental rape

Idiots like this are why I'm glad I'm almost 40, by 2050 I am out of here. I'm sorry for the mass-extinction and stuff though :cry:

[crimsonblue]

37. Somebody stop this woman from having more kids...

homeschooling all these kids? hmm... I wonder if they are indoctrinating them in some fundamentalist bullshit... Seriously woman, it's called: a) condoms; b) birth control; or c) pulling out . It is utterly irresponsible to have this many kids. Although, at this point, delivery probably physically no worse than the money tubes at bank drive-thru's.

[Erin Elizabeth]

43. There have been attempts to get a good urologist to

go in there in the middle of the night and vasectomize him right quick.

:wink:

[CottonBear]

46. The Duggars belong to an evangelical movement that believes children are "a blessing."

It's called Quiverful or something like that. Their particular religion wants them to procreate as much as possible.

[crimsonblue]

48. Of course their religion does..

Many of thes fundamental christian sects are bordering cult, or have cultish behaviors, and the only way for them to continue spreading their craziness to to pass it on the kids. I think it is personally reprehensible, unethical, and immoral for parents to indoctrinate their kids into believing bs lies. My children will grow up knowing the truth as it actually exists, meaning only knowledge obtained from verifiable observations.

[jmowreader]

66. Yes, Quiverfull

http://www.quiverfull.com/

As you've guessed, the name comes from Scripture: "Lo, Children are a heritage of the Lord; and the Fruit of the Womb is His reward. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them." (Psalm 127:3,4,5)

The movement says the Perfect Lord should determine family size, not the whims of Fallible Man. Now, if my quiver is empty is it the Lord's fault, or was it all the weird electronic emanations I dealt with in the Army?

[Megahurtz]

62. Someone tell this man to FixTheDix!!!

n/t!

[Arugula Latte]

38. This one to be named "J.J." -- short for "Jim Bob's Jism"

Works for a girl or a boy!

[Erin Elizabeth]

44. Or "Justsayno."

[Oeditpus Rex]

45. *thoomp*

"Get that, would you, Deidre?"

[fizzgig]

54. beat me to it

:rofl:

[terrya]

49. Flame away, but this is disgusting

There are 6 billion people on this planet. There will be 10 billion by the year 2020. This planet can only support a finite amount of people.

And yet, ha ha, this woman laughs about having EIGHTEEN children.

Disgusting and irresponsible in the extreme.

[BrklynLib at work]

51. No flame. 100% agreement.

[Ellen Forradalom]

55. Yeah. Whatever became of ZPG?

Zero Population Growth?

[LynneSin]

56. And just think - those 18 kids will breed 10-20 kids EACH

In about 50 years the Duggar population will exceed the state of Wyoming

[XemaSab]

59. I'm betting each one of those kids

has none, one, or two.

Seriously, after spending 20 years of your life raising your 18 younger siblings, would you want a baby of your own? :shrug:

[Deep13]

63. I am forced to agree.

Basically, the big children are raising the next younger kid. Now, this family is being artificially supported by media deals etc., but ordinarily, the bigger a family is, the poorer, sicker and more ignorant each child ends up being.

[jtk1965]

67. 10th of 11 here

Please post a link to a study corresponding to your obvious supposition.

[Deep13]

68. Not everything is on the internet.

It's just plain math. Unless the parents are farmers, the children are an expense and not a financial asset. The more there are, the fewer dollars and hours are available for each one. I'm not saying that every child of a big family is screwed, but am generally speaking.

[Sheets of Easter]

58. Hoarding is classified as a mental illness, right?

[ronnykmarshall]

64. Does she just cough and they come out?

[BlueIris]

69. Yeah, I'm not interested in bashing her, but even I wonder how she

hasn't had to deal with sweet and cuddly things like prolapse of the pelvic organs...a lot. I also don't get how this is medically possible let alone advisable.

[Roon]

65. How in the hell are they going to keep track of their Grandchildren

and their birthdays and such? Guess just write them down.

[Doug.Goodall]

71. I wonder what kind of car they drive

How much green house gas does this family contribute? They must have a Greyhound bus for a family car.

[Runcible Spoon]

72. I'm sick to death of this pig family.

Back when rural families had many children, they worked the land. All these people do is let their children sit around worshipping Jayzus and slurping down Hi-C, Velveeta and Wonder Bread. Why can't they at the very LEAST try to raise some fresh produce? It's bad enough they're into all these marketing scams, they're living off tax dollars by claiming every possible exemption and claiming their residence as a "church" and undoubtedly getting handouts from the fawning fundie masses of fans. Amazing Rubber Uterus and her husband Intravenous Viagra need to wake the fuck up before the good times are over and they're stuck with a housefull of spawn and no self reliance. Disgusting. :puke:

[Deja Q]

73. She's not a mother, she's Polaroid's new invention for an instant baby making machine.

(With their instant cameras no longer all the rage, they had to do something... or someone...)

:hide: