# The Duggars are expecting again (#20!!) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 8, 2011, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283 "2011-11-08T15:55:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/101 "2011-11-09T19:19:19Z")
> [@alice\_in\_wonderland](#): > > Oh for the love of Pete it’s a uterus - _not a freekin’ clown car!_ Does this same joke have to come up every time? I believe strongly in reproductive rights. To me, that means that abortion is the absolute right of any woman. But it also means that people have the absolute right to have as many children as they want, for whatever reasons they want. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/102 "2011-11-09T19:27:39Z")
Sure they do. I don’t think anyone has seriously advocated _preventing_ them from breeding like cockroaches. But I’m allowed to think it sucks. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/103 "2011-11-09T19:41:25Z")
Maybe I missed it somewhere, and I’ve never seen the show but I did read enough of the posts here to notice that she was once on birth control, and went off it after a miscarriage. Did they just get religion AFTER that? Like, one stroke of bad luck and ‘OMG GODS MAD AT US?!’? 'cause that’s kind of…odd. ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/104 "2011-11-09T19:58:25Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Does this same joke have to come up every time? > > I believe strongly in reproductive rights. To me, that means that abortion is the absolute right of any woman. But it also means that people have the absolute right to have as many children as they want, for whatever reasons they want. I do, too. Forgive me, however, for thinking that “we must out-breed the [del]brown-skinned people[/del] heathen barbarians” and having children simply for the sake of having children is more barbaric than the aforementioned heathens. “Absolute right to have as many children as they want” stops at double digits, by the way, for me, at a minimum. ---
**Author:** ![LavenderBlue](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e95f7d/32.png) [@LavenderBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LavenderBlue)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/105 "2011-11-09T20:09:19Z")
She’s a moron with too many children. After her last baby was born with special needs she should have stopped. That baby needs her attention. Instead she’s choosing to breed again. If she doesn’t want me to make judgements about her life she needs to stop putting it on national television. Relevant website for appropriate Duggar mockery: > **[Free Jinger](https://www.freejinger.org/)** ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/106 "2011-11-09T20:11:46Z")
> [@Taomist](#): > > Maybe I missed it somewhere, and I’ve never seen the show but I did read enough of the posts here to notice that she was once on birth control, and went off it after a miscarriage… No, she found religion before she met Jim Bob (actually that’s how they met). After her miscarriage she a read something about birth control causing miscarriages, and that led to her & Jim Bob discovering the Quiverfull movement. BTW before her conversion she did date and had several boyfriends. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/107 "2011-11-09T20:20:28Z")
> [@purplehorseshoe](#): > > I do, too. Forgive me, however, for thinking that “we must out-breed the [del]brown-skinned people[/del] heathen barbarians” and having children simply for the sake of having children is more barbaric than the aforementioned heathens. “Absolute right to have as many children as they want” stops at double digits, by the way, for me, at a minimum. I’ve never seen any reason to believe they are racist. does that come from the Quiverfull movement or something? I do think they are trying to out-breed other religions though. The Catholic church tried it too. I think they do genuinely love and know their children, and that these kids are in many ways better off than most. What I think is abusive is the level of isolation the children suffer. They are only allowed to see the world through the eyes of their parents. The more children they have, the less effective their home-schooling will be, and the more adults we’ll have on the economy trying to make a living with the same very limited scope of knowledge. I can’t even think of a pair trained, highly-educated teachers who I would accept as the sole source of my knowledge through age 18. It’s impossibly limiting. I also think the Duggar children are better off than most Quiverful kids, or even most homeschooled kids. Their parents at least have the motivation and resources to take them traveling and introduce them to the world. There are a lot of kids out there who never leave home, which is terrifying to me. I seem to remember the oldest girl talkign abuot becoming a GYN a while back. Then it switched to nurse, and now, I understand to mid-wife. this saddens me. If they were encouraging these ids to be educated and using the money from the show to support it, they’d get a very different response in my mind. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/108 "2011-11-09T20:28:59Z")
> [@etv78](#): > > I understand the origin. Just IMO “vending machine” is more apropos. Considering you have to make a deposit to get something out of it, you make a good point. It disturbs me to hear of little Josie’s health problems, and that they’d even think of risking that happening to another child. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/109 "2011-11-09T20:50:41Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > I’ve never seen any reason to believe they are racist. does that come from the Quiverfull movement or something? I do think they are trying to out-breed other religions though. > > The Catholic church tried it too… At least the Pope allows for the rythmn and abstinence. ---
**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:** [November 9, 2011, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/110 "2011-11-09T20:58:41Z")
> [@Soylent\_Juicy](#): > > “How do they AFFORD those kids?” Well, now they have additional revenue stream from their reality TV freakshow. In the past they have relied on gifts and donations from like-minded church groups - I don’t know if that continues or not. ---
**Author:** ![TruCelt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/trucelt/32/523_2.png) [@TruCelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TruCelt)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 9:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/111 "2011-11-09T21:06:23Z")
Didn’t one of those home-repair reality shows finish and furnish their home? I’m pretty sure that’s the noteriety began. . . ---
**Author:** ![ShelliBean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f9ae1b/32.png) [@ShelliBean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShelliBean)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/112 "2011-11-09T21:12:29Z")
> [@suranyi](#): > > Does this same joke have to come up every time? > > I believe strongly in reproductive rights. To me, that means that abortion is the absolute right of any woman. But it also means that people have the absolute right to have as many children as they want, for whatever reasons they want. I absolutely agree with you. However, I would also be pretty snarky if someone told me she had had 20 abortions though. Both goes into the file in my head that says “Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should”. ---
**Author:** ![Taomist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Taomist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Taomist)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/113 "2011-11-09T21:53:28Z")
> [@alphaboi867](#): > > No, she found religion before she met Jim Bob (actually that’s how they met). After her miscarriage she a read something about birth control causing miscarriages, and that led to her & Jim Bob discovering the Quiverfull movement. BTW before her conversion she did date and had several boyfriends. Ah, ok. Thanks 🙂 Just wondered how the birth control fit in with the religion, but it isn’t as if every religion forbids it. ---
**Author:** ![Laggard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/9de053/32.png) [@Laggard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Laggard)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/114 "2011-11-09T22:10:14Z")
> [@TruCelt](#): > > Didn’t one of those home-repair reality shows finish and furnish their home? I’m pretty sure that’s the noteriety began. . . I remember them buying a kit house. One of those metal frame houses? Came in about 103,433 pieces. They thought it would take them a few months but ended up taking years. I’m pretty sure they did it themselves. Or maybe I have my reality shows mixed up. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/115 "2011-11-09T22:19:11Z")
It’s funny because religious people who don’t believe in evolution still out compete those who do believe in it. ---
**Author:** ![ems](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/cdc98d/32.png) [@ems](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ems)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 10:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/116 "2011-11-09T22:20:19Z")
I caught a few episodes of the TV show recently when I was home all day, after having surgery, for a couple of weeks. Having never watched it before or even heard of them I was mildly fascinated. I had the same questions related to education, time with the parents, girls having to raise the younger ones etc as this was an alien concept of family to me. But the all seemed relatively happy, they all got to see outside of AR and get to travel and do activities etc My general stance was it was in TV for entertainment that I won’t tell you how to raise your family if you don’t tell me how to raise mine. But my opinion is - Holy Crap that is a lot of kids to raise and with young Josie being so premature and the associated health risks to mom. As the local news anchor this morning put it, “Son, you need to get a hobby out of the house!” 😃 Slightly off topic… I saw the episode where the eldest son got married and the comment from the brides father along the lines of 'her authority in life switches from me to her new husband" and that was when the :dubious: really kicked in especially after reading more on the Quiverfull movement. Also what really weirds me out is the way the women on the show - Mrs Duggar, the new Junior Mrs Duggar and the friend (Mrs Bates???) who has also has eleventy hundred kids all dressed as bad 80’s throwbacks is the way the all look with unadulterated adoration and fawning at their husbands. It is the actual look on their faces that I find…creepy. I love my husband and wouldn’t be without him but c’mon! ---
**Author:** ![Miss\_Sunshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Miss\_Sunshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miss_Sunshine)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/117 "2011-11-09T23:04:12Z")
What I would like to know is how can they afford it? What kind of medical costs do they have? Do they get a discount after baby #15 and all the rest are free??🙂 Well, we know one thing, apparently her husband must not mind that she is a bit stretched out down there… sorry, I know that is gross, but come on, the body can only take so much. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2011, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/118 "2011-11-09T23:56:56Z")
> [@LavenderBlue](#): > > She’s a moron with too many children. After her last baby was born with special needs she should have stopped. That baby needs her attention. Instead she’s choosing to breed again. If she doesn’t want me to make judgements about her life she needs to stop putting it on national television. True that; it’s not like they’re just people who were on a human interest special, they make a career of their fertility. In fact you could say their kids are supporting them in a way. I’m not irate or anything- I regard them as sort of a freak show but it’s not something I give much thought to, and I get just as irked when some antique he-celebrity like Tony Randall or James Doohan or Saul Bellow or Anthony Quinn or [etc. etc.] has kids young enough to be his great-grandchildren knowing full well the odds are 50:1 he won’t live to see the kid finish elementary school (in fact none of those men did live to see their youngest finish grade school). I don’t think you should have kids to prove a point or for vanity but strictly because you want to be the best parent you can and I just don’t think you can do that with an army of other kids in the house. (I’ve seen how much time my friends with 2 or 3 kids spend on them, and how much money and we’re not talking particularly spoiled kids… can you even imagine having more than a dozen still at home?) ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/119 "2011-11-10T12:19:23Z")
I don’t like the idea of knowingly increasing your chances of having a high-risk birth–possibly having a child who’s disabled and/or special-needs–and also raising this kid in what is essentially a group home. Under a microscope and yet socially isolated. She puts her life at risk every time she delivers. If she were to die, she’d be leaving her “quiver” to her eldest daughters, no doubt. That is fine when you don’t know any better and when you’re talking about a handful of kids rather than a bazillion. I’d hate to be born into a family where I’m expected to be my mother’s understudy and not allowed to have any choice in the matter. That’s what sucks about the situation, IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2011, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283/120 "2011-11-10T12:30:04Z")
Think of what the world’s population would be in a couple generations if every couple reproduced like the Duggars. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-duggars-are-expecting-again-20/602283.md?page=7)