Karen made a very thoughtful comment about the Duggars in my post about wine. She wrote, "seems the only ones they really interact with are in their same little church. What are they going to do if one of the kids wants to break out of the cookie cutter mold and marry someone outside the clan, so to speak. Someone who doesn't necessarily believe in having all her skirts ankle length, for instance. Will they go into melt-down crisis mode?"
A friend of mine homeschools her 7 kids and keeps a tight rein on them, to keep them pure, innocent and chaste. I suppose Michelle Duggar does the same. I mean - if the kids only meet others like them the chances of them breaking the mold are slim. At the same time it has an air of in-breeding about it, doesn't it? On the other hand - how will they ever win people over to their value system/religion/cult if they don't interact with the general (often pagan) public? As Catholics we are commissioned to go out into the world but not be of it.
I found a website called "Duggars Without Pity" and one commenter remarked that when a fundamentalist group encounters someone worldly (ie; Cousin Amy Duggar) they "Love Bomb" them. They seem to accept this person unconditionally but it's all a scheme to win the worldly one over their ultra-conservative values. I suppose I have done this to a degree even in my own family but I hope my motives are a little more pure than "love bombing" seems to imply.
I think big families are wonderful especially since I only have one sibling. I always longed for at least one sister and some more brothers. I enjoy watching the elder Duggar girls interact. However, in a family with so many little children the elder children become surrogate parents. To a degree I think this is fine especially if it's chores they are helping with. But when they seem to take the brunt of responsibility in regard to changing oodles of diapers and taking on some of the discipline issues (have not seen it on the Duggar show necessarily but I imagine it happens) I have a problem with that. Children need to be children. Yes, they need chores, etc. but they shouldn't be raising the younger ones because Mama and Daddy aren't practicing responsible parenting.
Catholic teaching says parents have a responsibility to their families and to society to ensure that the children they have can be appropriately cared for. In addition, the health of the mother is a concern; having pregnancy after pregnancy with no recuperative time does not fall under responsible parenthood.
Wikipedia claims that "the Duggars now say their income is derived from the commercial properties they own. The Duggars claim they live debt-free which Jim Bob has said is "the fruit of Jim Sammons' Financial Freedom Seminar" he attended years ago. However, charity and donations of food and household appliances — albeit from private individuals and corporations, not the government — provides in large part for their lifestyle. Their large house was completed on January 20 2006 with aid from Discovery Network and corporate sponsors."
Something is not adding up here. They want a gazillion kids (who seem healthy and happy) but they are taking donations to support this lifestyle?! In my book that is not responsible parenting nor is it living debt-free.
From a "green" point of view they also seem to use a lot of disposable plates and cups (despite having several commercial dishwashers in the kitchen) and they eat a lot of processed food (Tater Tots comes to mind!) In the "Josh and Anna Wedding Episode" they aired a recipe for chicken salad that called for canned chicken. Blech! That stuff smells like cat food! Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy a couple chickens on sale and roast them? It might take a little bit more time but with all the child labor available I am sure Jezebel or Janey-Sue (names have been changed to protect their identity) could easily cut up that chicken. (OK, snark factor off...)
Anyway, I enjoy the show (I particularly like child #8 Josiah) and will continue to watch it but perhaps now that the show has evolved (oops - bad word to use when talking about Creationism believing Duggars!) I will perhaps watch with a more critical eye.
Oh - have to add this even if it's not about the Duggars - I was hard up for something to watch on TV last night so I watched some "mommy swap" show and one of the featured moms was a Christian women who stated she literally believed in the Bible. She said (and I quote!) "we believe the world was made by God in 7 days." Um...hate to tell you this Hon but it was SIX days and on the SEVENTH day He rested.
And now I will rest my case.
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