It’s Number 17 for the Duggars!
For whatever reason, my articles about the Duggar family are the most popular on this site (If you’re new to the site, start with Life in the Duggar Family.). You people have a perverse sense of curiosity.
If you’ve paid any attention to the media today, you’ve probably heard that they went and did it again! They just had number 17!
Here’s what the Associated Press had to say about it:
It’s a girl — again — for the Duggars. Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar welcomed their 17th child, and seventh daughter, into the world Thursday. … Jennifer weighed 8 pounds, 8 ounces and arrived five days after Michelle’s due date.
That’s because she was trying to avoid coming out. “No! Not that family! Send me to North Korea! Send me to Darfur! Have me born and abandoned in the woods to be raised by a pack of wolves! Just don’t make me a Duggar!”
Less than 30 minutes after giving birth, the Duggars already were talking of having more. … “We’d love to have more,” Michelle said, adding that the girls are outnumbered seven to 10 in the family.
Stop! Stop! Do you have OCD? They don’t have to come out even!
“We love the ruffles and lace.”
As I explained in an earlier article, Jim Bob and Michelle put the girls to work doing all of the domestic chores. If you’re having trouble keeping the house clean, you can always hire a maid!
All the children — whose names start with the letter J — are home-schooled.
Apparently their home schooling never got beyond the tenth letter of the alphabet.
Jennifer joins siblings Joshua, 19; John David, 17; Janna, 17; Jill, 16; Jessa, 14; Jinger, 13; Joseph, 12; Josiah, 11; Joy-Anna, 9; Jedidiah, 8; Jeremiah, 8; Jason 7; James 6; Justin, 4; Jackson, 3; Johannah, almost 2.
No! Ginger is spelled with a G! Some of those names are pretty obscure. I think they’re bumping up against the end of their Great Fundie Names for Baby book.
Did you see how they cheat on the naming? If there’s some really good name they want to use, such as David or Anna, they just stick a J-name in front to make it a double! I bet Jim Bob thought up that trick himself.
“We are just so grateful to God for another gift from him,” said Jim Bob Duggar, 42, a former state representative.
Most people are satisfied with smaller gifts from God, such as a beautiful sunset or rainbow.
“It actually went fast,” [Michelle] said. “I guess once I started progressing, it went within 30 minutes.”
If you do something 17 times in a row, you’re bound to get good at it.
Final Notes
The Duggars have been featured on several programs on cable’s Discovery Health Network. The next special, the Duggar Family Album, is scheduled to air next month, Jim Bob Duggar said.
I don’t get that channel. You folks will have to watch it and come up with your own snarky comments.
Among the “fun facts” listed on Discovery Health’s Web page devoted to the Duggars: A baby has been born in every month except June; the Duggars have gone through an estimated 90,000 diapers, and Michelle, 40, has been pregnant for 126 months — or 10.5 years — of her life.
The Discovery Channel has an odd sense of fun.
August 3rd, 2007 at 6:08 pm
I am really surprised that Jim Bob hasn’t made Michelle change her name to Jichelle just to fit in; I guess her penance for not having a “J” name is to spit kids out for eternity.
August 16th, 2007 at 1:28 pm
I’ve never wanted a woman to hit menopause so desperately as I do now. Though I suppose this is the first time I’ve had such a grand reason.
April 5th, 2008 at 6:47 am
I always refer to the one girl as “Gin-grrrr” (hard “G” on the second syllable, or rhymes with “ringer”).
June 8th, 2008 at 9:53 pm
How many more children do they need.
June 9th, 2008 at 12:05 am
As many as God allows them, Annelise…Don’t you read the Bible!? XD
June 9th, 2008 at 9:36 am
Michelle apparently intends to keep pumping them out until her uterus literally turns inside out and she dies. Jizz Blob will then immediately replace her with a nublie, fertile relative, as the bible instructs, in order to keep spreading his sacred seed.
June 9th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Oops - I meant “nubile”, not “nublie” - although that kind of fits, too.
June 13th, 2008 at 5:12 pm
You go Duggars!My wife and I would like as much too.Children,they are such a joy!!!
June 13th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
You know, having huge numbers of children used to be a hallmark of the underclass, a necessity born of poverty, disease and malnutrition. People had to churn out ten or more kids in order to replace those who died, and to have one or two survive to a “useful” age - old enough to help harvest the crops or work in the mills or mines. Then, hopefully, one would still be around to take care of you in your last miserable days and shovel some dirt over your corpse. No one ever had that many kids just because they loved having a house full of mouths to feed, or that the world was suffering from a lack of people. Yet somehow, these fundies have taken what used to be a social stigma and turned it into some sort of religious badge of honor. Why? It’s not as if they’re doing something that your average rabbit can’t do as well or better. It’s not as if humans are on the endangered species list.
Only seriously deluded, selfish idiots want more children than they can physically, financially, and emotionally support. How can you give each one of a dozen kids individual love and attention?
June 13th, 2008 at 8:14 pm
Ennile: Meeting my youthful cousins may change your mind.
June 21st, 2008 at 8:58 pm
well-said,Sue Blue.
These shows glamorizing having lots of children really misconstrue the true meaning of what these QF types are trying to do…create a generation of white,republican Christian warriors,whom they will brainwash and raise to put out into the world,their own selfish intentions.A ‘Pat Robertson’ type of cult,led by themselves,with delusional ideas and beliefs.
On another note,I guess Judas and Jezebel are out of the question as J names.LOL.
June 22nd, 2008 at 4:42 pm
http://www.explosm.net/comics/1314/
Nuff said.
June 23rd, 2008 at 8:57 am
*facepalm*
It’s ironic…those that should be procreating usually are the ones that don’t (or they have the good sense to stop at two or three) and the ones that SHOULD NOT be breeding are the ones that are procreating like bunnies on crystal meth.
This person falls in the latter category.
If anyone’s seen “Idiocracy”…I think that future is frighteningly plausible, all things considered.
June 23rd, 2008 at 9:35 am
that was funny,JR. LOL.
June 23rd, 2008 at 5:31 pm
True LadyR.,and what got me when the McCaughey septuplets were born,is they *should have been out there warning the public and publicly decrying this method of fertility treatment…she got pregnant w. 7 at once,for God’s sake! …warn the public of the danger!!! It would have been the *responsible thing to do.But noooo……they just praise God it happened. @@ How nutty.
June 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
Absolutely, S. I think irresponsible child-bearing is bad wherever and whenever it occurs - and unfortunately, it’s not just the rabid fundies who are doing it. Fertility treatments that are not only insanely expensive but that threaten a woman’s life and health by cramming an entire litter into her uterus are grotesque. I think a women should never have more babies at a time than she has nipples. After all - even rabbits adhere to the one-offspring-per-tit rule of nature!
June 24th, 2008 at 6:11 am
I thought I would have been done with the Duggar threads, but here you brought up a pet issue of mine: fertility treatments.
1. If abortion is bad and stem cell research is bad, then why is throwing away unimplanted eggs from fertility treatments okay?
2. If the desire for having a child is SO strong, why MUST it be your genetic offspring? If you can’t bear a kid, what makes your genes so damn good? Why not ADOPT?
June 24th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Both good points! I hadn’t thought of that (no.1).
June 24th, 2008 at 6:10 pm
So true,Sue,and 2 of those kids have cerebral palsy,which they just call ‘God’s plan for their life’ ..when the whole thing could have been prevented to begin with.Drugs like Clomid and fertility treatments are scary.And stimulating the ovaries can lead to ovarian cancer,cysts and other problems as well.
Last I read,though,the medical community finally did grow a brain on this and stopped using the method the McCaughey’s used (hyperstimulating the ovaries and then injecting sperm into the fallopian tubes),and now they do the ‘test tube baby’ method,(actually a petri dish,I believe),to create embryos and then only put 1-2 at the most inside the uterus.MUCH safer! Which is why you don’t hear of this type thing going on anymore.
June 25th, 2008 at 11:17 am
Yeah, I’ve always been disturbed by people who are so adamant about copying their own genes that they spend enormous amounts of money and endanger their health and the health of their potential offspring on these fertility treatments. Many refuse to even consider adopting - it’s got to be their flesh and blood or nothing! It gives me the same kind of feeling I get about the Duggars - that these are selfish, immature, irresponsible people who are not truly thinking about the potential human beings they want to create, only about themselves. It’s only natural to want to give birth to your own kids, but when it’s just not in the cards…why not adopt and give an already-existant human being a chance at a good life?
June 25th, 2008 at 7:50 pm
I agree,and I certainly wouldn’t blame anyone but myself if I’d used fertility treatments and something went wrong.Saying it is God’s plan,wow,what a way to rationalize.
July 1st, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Thanks for bringing up fertility treatments guys. Yeah, it’s a pet peeve of mine too, and I was always greatly disturbed when people would stick six or seven embryos into one uterus…good lord, I don’t think God (if he exists) intended for us to have litters.
I think I’ve heard of the McCaughey (pronounced McCoy, right?) I think some Discovery specials have been done about them…I didn’t know they were a variety of crazy fundie.
I think science is awesome. Certain areas of science fascinate me, and I have an admiration for the scientists that make breakthroughs and discoveries every day.
But…there’s one golden rule that I think should be applied to some areas of science (i.e. fertility treatments)
Just because you CAN, doesn’t mean you SHOULD.
Simple enough, right?
July 1st, 2008 at 10:19 pm
absolutely! nature intended for things to be done a certain way for good reason,and when you go outside those paramaters,well..anything can happen,as the McCaugheys found out.(yes,it’s pronouced McCoy).But they did decide they had enough kids after that.(I’m sure I would have,too! ) LOL.
Not that I’m totally against fertility treatments,it just seems some families had to go thru some quite fantastic experiences b/f that type of treatment was finally brought to an end.(Although even drugs like Clomid can produce multiple fetuses).Perhaps a case of ‘be careful what you wish for’?!
July 2nd, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Agreed. I would think that stuffing 5-7 embryos into a single womb would be dangerous to the mother, and the babies. Plus, it costs a lot of money, and I’m sure a lot of heartbreak from miscarriages/still birth/severe birth defects also result from that. I’d think it’d be safer to put three in a uterus, hoping at least one will take.
Now, I know there are couples out there absolutely DESPERATE to have children of their own, and I feel sympathy for them…but I’d like to think they’d at least consider the health of the mother AND the future babies. Carrying four or five fetuses at a time is pretty risky, to say the least, and I do believe there’s a pretty high fetal mortality rate in pregnancies like that.
But I’m glad to see that they’ve stopped with the six or seven embryo practice. Because I think that’s seriously overdoing it.
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
The McCaughey’s had they type done where they stimulate the ovaries with fertility drugs,then induce ovulation,and shortly afterwards,inject sperm into the tubes.That gives the best chance of a pregnancy,without the really high cost of doing the test tube method.(although it’s still expensive,I hear).
The problem is that when they ultrasound the ovaries, looking for how many follicles have ruptured before injecting the sperm,it just doesn’t always give an accurate picture of how many are really there.In their case,it showed 3,but obviously there were more.And it had happened in several cases bf and after that as well.That’s why I think she should have been out there warning women about that type of treatment.It can and did happen.
But Dr’s switched to the test tube method only now,and only putting a small no. back into the uterus…or so I read anyway.It’s more expensive,but safer.That’s why you don’t hear of women using fertility methods and becoming pregnant w/ 6-8 or so anymore.Someone finally got a clue.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:23 pm
In case you haven’t heard, she is pregnant with number 18 and due in January 2009…whatever! Dont this people realize how selfish they are? I mean, come on people enough all ready! They should be taken out and horsed whipped!
July 25th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
Please, just let it be over. Please. Put a cork in it. Or superglue. Or something. Or, hey , Doc, when repairing the episiotomy, why not just keep sewing? Anything. Just please, no more Duggars.
July 27th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
they act like silly teenagers on the announcement video..like it’s their first baby.I mean get real…they 40+.I think it makes them feel young;one reason they keep it up.I doubt they’re going to be the type to just enjoy their future grandkids when they’re busy producing their own kids!
July 28th, 2008 at 1:47 pm
Maybe it’s just me, but I thought the funniest part of the video was where Momma Duggar said that she’d always wanted a pearl necklace. Aim higher, Jim Bob, aim higher…
July 28th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
To my chagrin, I discovered that Canada harbours the Duggars, +1.
July 29th, 2008 at 7:58 pm
LOL Barbara…yes,go for oysters JB.not crabs! LOL.oh that was bad.
July 29th, 2008 at 8:07 pm
OMG,thx Alex..the mother looks like she’s 60,not 44! her 51 yo hubby looks younger than she does.she looks worn out..I’d be old, worn and frazzled,too w/ 18 kids!