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19 Kids And Counting


Sarah147

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Hello,

This was just mentioned in another thread. I love this series! I love watching how they live and how they manage all those kids! It's sooo clean, too.

Anyone have any favorite moments from the show?


God bless you.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm sure that they get asked this constantly, but how do they handle that many and do they get to spend adequate time with them all?

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[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1297879904' post='2213008']
I'm sure that they get asked this constantly, but how do they handle that many and do they get to spend adequate time with them all?
[/quote]


For your first question: I don't know, maybe they turn on the fire hose? Seriously, though I think with really large families what happens is you have some older kids in the 15-18 range and others in the real little kid range ... and the older ones help keep an eye on the smaller ones. This is how I've seen it work with 10-kid families. With 19 they must be super organized.

For your 2nd question: I dunno. I think its overrated. My parents never "spent time" with any of us, and by that I mean we did not have individual time set aside. I know they say to do that but frankly I think unless the child is going through a crisis, it isn't a necessary part of raising strong, emotionally healthy children ... not in a big family where there are brothers and sisters to confide in. Living together as a family was enough for us. On the show the kids all seem well adjusted and aware that they are loved ... which is a function of how the parents view them all as a gift from God, not how much time each one gets.

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I looove this show!!

[quote name='tinytherese' timestamp='1297879904' post='2213008']
I'm sure that they get asked this constantly, but how do they handle that many and do they get to spend adequate time with them all?
[/quote]

They do get this all the time. And they do have a system where they have the older ones help the younger ones. Actually, they have a buddy system, where every sibling has a buddy who they help get dressed and stay on top of their school and chore schedule. They homeschool, do everything together and the parents work from home which allows them to spend more one-on-one time with each child than the average single-child family on a latch-key tv-babysitter system.

Their house guidelines are amesome http://www.duggarfamily.com/houseguidelines.html

They use a jurisdiction system for chores -- small children may be responsible for keeping a drawer tidy or cleaning up a sink every day. Older children maintain whole rooms, watching over little ones in their jurisdiction. One day, Jim Bob, the dad, said "Michelle's jurisdiction is the whole house." -- and of course, his jurisdiction is the whole family, including taking care of his wife. How cool that their family chores don't just involve checking off a to-do list, but actually taking care of each other?

Shortly after watching this episode I attended Benediction and we sang "Holy God, we praise Thy name" at the end (one of my favorite hymns) and as we repeated the final verse "Infinite they vast domain; everlasting is thy reign" I suddenly had this image of the Great Chain of Being extending from the jurisdictions of little creatures like earthworms through the work and purpose of humanity to the infinite jurisdiction of God extending not just over the entire universe but even into the farthest reaches of uncreated infinity through the inscrutable solicitude of His omnipotent grace. It was such a beautiful thought I didn't want the last notes to die away.

If I had a family, I would most likely borrow heavily from the Duggars. Having said that, I am always saddened whenever they talk about their "home church" :(

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Their oldest son is married and no longer living at home. So, it's 18 kids, yeah?

Personally, I'm not a fan of turning your family life into a reality TV show, but I guess it helps to pay the bills. Also, having a large family is not as crazy as having sextuplets, where you have them all at once and no older siblings to help out with the younger ones.

Families can decide how many kids to have, within reason. Meaning, if they can no longer care for the needs (feed, clothe) of the kids they already have, it's probably not prudent to have more. The Duggars aren't in that situation. If the mom's health deteriorates so that having more children becomes dangerous, again, it's probably prudent to halt the growth of the family. Up until recently, Michelle Duggar has been in very good health, and her doctor said she's very much good to have babies. But the last pregnancy was dangerous (pre-eclampsia, emergency C-section, 3 mo. premature delivery) and there are only so many places in a woman's uterus where a placenta can attach. Michelle is 44 years old, and has had three C-sections. I think the Duggars are certainly open to having more children, but realize that this might be it for them.

Leaving things up to God is fine (and a very Christian thing to do), but it does bother me if people use that as an excuse to absolve themselves of any responsibility in the matter. As for it not being anyone else's business....when you put your family out there on a national TV show, you've made your personal life everyone else's business.

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Wow, they really have changed a lot since that original documentary. I watched the last season of the show over Christmas, and have been keeping up with them this season.

The Duggars inspire me, though I could never replicate their family situation. As someone else said, they're extremely well-adjusted and not socially dysfunctional at all. And as far as the camera crews, they have almost become a part of the family themselves. There are many scenes on the show of the little ones playing with the crew. They even celebrated their sound guy's firstborn in one episode not too long ago.

Michelle still has some crazy hair. But I feel like they've stopped looking especially ... Amish.

The intro for last season:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_1iAMAEvlM[/youtube]

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