The Duggar Family: 19 and Counting...my thoughts

Michelle and Jim Bob with Josie

You’ve heard of the television show on TLC, 19 and Counting…, right? If you haven’t, it is about a family living in Arkansas. The married couple has had 19 kids in 20 years of marriage! In fact, the mother, Michelle just found out that she is pregnant with her 20^th child. They see children as God’s gift.

I think having 19 kids is outrageous! Is it fair for the older kids to look after the younger ones because the parents don’t have time to look after them? If you cannot give your children proper attention, should you really have 19 kids?

Michelle had preeclampsia in her last pregnancy, resulting in a dangerous very early term delivery of her daughter Josie at just 25 weeks old. If she knows that there are risks for having a child at age 45, why would she continue getting pregnant? There is a high chance that the child is not going to survive or have complications. In my opinion, it will be their fault if the child dies. This is a selfish act of irresponsibility. Josie went through a lot of pain. She was only 1 lb. 6 oz. when she was born. She has had serious breathing issues since her birth. She is also prone to illness. If the Duggars are pro-life, why are they risking Michelle’s life and the unborn baby’s life?

There are 7 billion people in this world. The world is already over-populated. If everyone had 19 kids, what would our world be like? The Scientific American stated that the biggest impact a U.S. citizen can have on the climate change problem is to have fewer children. Every American child born today will add roughly 9,441 metric tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere under current conditions. Having one fewer child would reduce a family’s climate burden 20 times more than driving a fuel-efficient car or using energy-saving appliances.

Also, there are a lot of kids who need a loving home. Why should you have a child if there is already one out there that you can help? Why not adopt?

People may say it is not our business. However, since this is a television show, people are being influenced by it. It is our business. People may now think that it is fine to have that many kids. Do we really want to promote that? The Duggar children already think it is okay to have that many kids.

The goal in life is not to necessarily get married and have kids.