Monday, April 13, 2009

Congrats to the Duggars!

Submitted by Jacelynn

Josh and Anna are pregnant! Anna is due in October, one month after their first anniversary. I’m looking forward to seeing the new baby and Josh and Anna more on the Duggars’ show, 18 Kids and Counting. It’s a bit odd that Anna's mother-in-law will have had a baby a mere year or so before, but to each their own.

How do you feel about the latest Duggar news?



People Magazine features the Duggar Family


Submitted by Anya

The latest edition of People Magazine features a five page spread (with pictures) on Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar and their 18 children. For those who watch their show or followed the family previously, much of the information isn’t new. There were a few details I had not heard before, however, that I thought were worthy of sharing:

· Jim Bob acknowledges that some people accuse the family of “overpopulating the world”, but he indicates that the family doesn’t “…worry about what other people think. We consider each child a blessing from God.”

· Michelle shares that they didn’t “start out planning that everyone’s name would start with a J…but once there was a pattern, we didn’t want anyone to feel left out.”

· Michelle took oral contraceptives for the first few years of marriage. After their first son, Joshua, was born she resumed. After becoming pregnant while on birth control and miscarrying, Jim Bob and Michelle came to believe that birth control had caused the miscarriage and decided to discontinue it permanently.

· Known for her sunny disposition, Michelle acknowledges darker days in the past when she struggled with little help and very tight finances. “There were times I felt like I was crying all day long.”

· Psychotherapist Dr. Jeanne Safer weighs in on the Duggar buddy system and the large role the older children play in raising the younger ones. She accuses Jim Bob and Michelle of “requiring them to be premature adults.”

· Michelle modestly admits that she hasn’t got it all figured out yet. She says, “You still think, ‘What did they do letting me come home with this baby?’ We’re still learning.”

Something else caught my eye – a picture of a diner style soda fountain in the Duggar kitchen. Wonder what Kate Gosselin would say about that?

Did anyone else read the article and have thoughts they would like to share? How do you view the Duggars in comparison to other reality TV families, such as the Gosselins and Roloffs?