# Baby Factory Now Stands At 15 Kids **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 25, 2004, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052 "2004-05-25T20:21:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Duckster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/duckster/32/1244_2.png) [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/1 "2004-05-25T20:21:41Z")
> [@](#): > > **Ark. Family Marks Birth of 15th Child** > > FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. - Michelle Duggar’s family says that the mother is all smiles after delivering her 15th child. > > Both the baby and mother were doing well, although Michelle was feeling some discomfort because the birth was her second by Caesarean section, said father and former state legislator Jim Bob Duggar’s mother, Mary Duggar. > > “She’s a trooper. She’s just all smiles,” Mary Duggar said in a telephone interview Monday. > > – snip – > > Michelle, who home schools her children and is helping to build the family’s new home in Tontitown from the ground up, started having her babies when she was 21, four years after she and Jim Bob married. He is a real estate businessman and a former state representative. > > Their children include two sets of twins, and the parents have stuck to the letter “J” for their names. There is Joshua, 16; Jana and John-David, 14; Jill, 13; Jessa, 11; Jinger, 10; Joseph, 9; Josiah, 7; Joy-Anna, 6; Jeremiah and Jedidiah, 5; Jason, 4; James, 2; and Justin, 1. Source: [News Link](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=541&ncid=751&e=9&u=/ap/20040525/ap_on_he_me/fifteen_kids) Congrats to the family, I guess. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Kiki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kiki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiki)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/2 "2004-05-25T20:28:48Z")
Congrats I guess. All I can say is better her then me! No way in hell would I have that many kids. And homeschooling them. Forget it! There’s a family in the little town I live in that has 18 kids. There was an article in the newspaper about them a couple of years ago. They’re a middle income family and live in a 4 bedroom 2 bath house. My husband went to school with some of the kids so some of them are in their late 20s and moved out of the house now but still… 18 kids. I’d go nuts. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/3 "2004-05-25T20:50:56Z")
Jedidiah? _Jinger?_ I guess by children no. 26 and 27, Jim-Bob and Michelle will be down to naming them “Jailbait,” “Jell-O,” “Jockstrap” and “Jumper-Cable.” ---
**Author:** ![The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dc4da7/32.png) [@The\_Man\_With\_The\_Golden\_Gun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Man_With_The_Golden_Gun)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/4 "2004-05-25T20:57:04Z")
> [@](#): > > “But we both love children. Even yesterday, she said she would like to have some more.”“But we both love children. Even yesterday, she said she would like to have some more.” Lady, they are children, not friggin’ Pokemon. ---
**Author:** ![Flander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8c91f0/32.png) [@Flander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Flander)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/5 "2004-05-25T20:57:07Z")
Apparently, they are trying to slowly repopulate America single-handedly. ---
**Author:** ![Kalhoun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/3bc359/32.png) [@Kalhoun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kalhoun)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/6 "2004-05-25T21:24:57Z")
I’ll bet she’s feeling pretty reamed right about now. ---
**Author:** ![Reloy3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c68b51/32.png) [@Reloy3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reloy3)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/7 "2004-05-25T21:40:06Z")
Shoot, I can beat that. My father ropes with a guy that was one of 26 brothers and sisters. Granted, he is from a generation even older than my father when families tended to be larger, and we were in a rural agricultural setting. I understand, though, that his mother had a number of twins and triplets. I remember reading once that the world record was 69 kids from one mother in Australia. I searched the Guinness Book of World Records website and found nothing ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/8 "2004-05-25T21:42:48Z")
What’s wrong with a having a large family? Denigrating people for having a large family is simply wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/9 "2004-05-25T21:52:51Z")
> [@](#): > > What’s wrong with a having a large family? Denigrating people for having a large family is simply wrong. Tell that to Jinger, honey. ---
**Author:** ![capacitor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e47774/32.png) [@capacitor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capacitor)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/10 "2004-05-25T21:54:09Z")
If the parents can support them, and the children can support each other and their parents around the house, I say more power to them. ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 9:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/11 "2004-05-25T21:58:34Z")
> [@qts](#): > > What’s wrong with a having a large family? Denigrating people for having a large family is simply wrong. Because the world is overpopulated. Because the schools are overcrowded. Because it takes more fuel to transport them, more food to feed them, more tax dollars to support them. Because of increased burdens on hospitals, prisons, court systems, state resources. And because all of them will probably procreate at some point, further exacerbating the problems. ---
**Author:** ![Snooooopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Snooooopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snooooopy)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/12 "2004-05-25T22:07:29Z")
Boy, for this woman, menstruation would seem less like an automatic fact of life than a kind of illness that comes and goes. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/13 "2004-05-25T22:47:42Z")
I’ll bet the baby cartwheeled out. ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/14 "2004-05-25T22:49:06Z")
To each is own, I guess. I’m glad she’s happy. She sounds like something a doula-friend of mine described as a birth junkie…someone who loves being pregnant and having babkies, but then sort of loses interest in the kid when she/he gets past age 2 or so. Also, I’ve always wondered how on earth you can give each child the individual love and attention they all need when you have so many? You’d kinda have to schedule them: Jinger, Tuesday 1:30-2, Jill, 2-2:30, etc…I’d go nuts. But then, I’m one of those super-selfish people who chose to have only one child. ---
**Author:** ![Jpeg\_Jones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/4bbf92/32.png) [@Jpeg\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jpeg_Jones)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/15 "2004-05-25T23:12:26Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > I’ll bet the baby cartwheeled out. You are _awesome_! ---
**Author:** ![hapaXL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/94ad74/32.png) [@hapaXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hapaXL)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/16 "2004-05-25T23:17:45Z")
Over the course of their life, the average American child will consume 30 times the resources a child in West Africa will consume. If you heard of a woman in Africa with 450 kids, would it inspire thoughts of world over-population and the like? ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/17 "2004-05-25T23:49:28Z")
That doesn’t sound like someone to whom standing comes natural. > [@qts](#): > > Denigrating people for having a large family is simply wrong. That’s well beyond “a large family.” Four children make a large family. Fifteen children make for an _unsupportably_ large family. Even if Jim Bob’s business brings in enough to adequately feed and clothe them (which would be an extraordinary feat,) it seems unlikely that all the kids are receiving the support that children should have. Home-schooling is fine, if it’s done properly. In this situation, it seems very unlikely that the kids are going to be adequately educated. The main benefit of home-schooling over public schools is supposed to be that the kids receive more individual attention. This family has eleven school-aged kids who require nine separate curriculums. Each grade level receives an hour of basic education per day, that’s already a remarkable accomplishment, as it’s more than a full day’s work for the caregivers, which presumably has be delivered sometime in between the quotidian tasks associated with the management of a household of seventeen, of which five or six of the members are young enough to require nearly constant supervision. It will be a miracle if a significant number of those kids reach adulthood with an education that will allow them to do much beyond reproducing themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/18 "2004-05-25T23:52:07Z")
That should read “_If_ each grade level receives an hour of basic education per day, that’s already a remarkable accomplishment…” ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2004, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/19 "2004-05-25T23:59:57Z")
> [@Rhiannon8404](#): > > But then, I’m one of those super-selfish people who chose to have only one child. No, the super-selfish people choose to have _no_ children. :D&R: But seriously, my wife was #13 of 14 kids, which may be why we’ve chosen to have Zero ourselves. ---
**Author:** ![Cisco](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Cisco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cisco)\ **Post date:** [May 26, 2004, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052/20 "2004-05-26T00:18:40Z")
Even if he made a couple hundred grand a year -which is possible for an unusually good real estate agent- it seems like he would barely be scraping by just to feed and clothe them. Forget anything extra like clothes, birthday parties, or family vacation. And what if even half of them want to go to college. How did you send eight kids to college?! [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/baby-factory-now-stands-at-15-kids/247052.md?page=2)