Back before birth control, people had lots of kids and did the exact same thing.

Is it any worse than dropping off your ONE child into a daycare full of strangers because you can’t be bothered to raise it yourself? Better older siblings than someone who’s just changing diapers for a paycheck, IMO.

Plus, if they give their kids a great home, can afford all of them, and bring them up with amazing values, I say thank you Michelle and Jim Bob Dugger for filling the world with more amazing lives that will help change our future.

“Jim Bob & Michelle Duggar married July 21st, 1984. At that time, they chose to use the birth control pill. They thought, “We don’t want children right now. We can’t afford them. We want children in our timing, when we’re ready.” Four years later they decided to have their first child. Then, Michelle went back on the pill, but she conceived and had a miscarriage. At that point they talked with a Christian medical doctor and read the fine print in the contraceptives package. They found that while taking the pill you can get pregnant and then miscarry. They were grieved! They were Christians! They were pro-life! They realized that their selfish actions had taken the life of their child. They prayed and asked God to forgive them, and to teach them to love children like He loves children. They asked God to bless them with as many children as He saw fit in His timing.”

Yeah, I think she lost her mind.

And Cecelia, I feel very sorry that you haven’t been able to have kids. My sympathy goes out to you.

As a lass who seems to be sterile or damn near, hell, she’s got it and wants to use it, rock on, honey. Each member of that genetically-similar little herd there was apparently born with his or her own brain in a land that still has plenty of legal fortifications in place to give them the freedom to use it however they want.

Just a shift in the status quo, Mark, American culture may be progressive, but the American populace still suffers from precisely the same level of WTF OMG brain farts and drama queenishness virulent among the species. :p

But now we have to shoot you for telling.

Dam China! Theyz just 2 smart.

I may have a lot of problems with what the Duggars are teaching their children, and especially with them having 18 biological children when there are so many children in this world that need good homes that they could have adopted instead. I *DO* have to give them credit where credit is due, though; they do NOT depend on the state to pay for raising their children. They are doing at least THAT much themselves.

Hey, wait a second… who put this burning cross on my lawn?

“She’s not ‘raising’ the family, though! Organizing the family, maybe. But not raising it. Each kid gets shuffled off to be raised by an older sibling as soon as the latest model comes along. She’s having lots of babies, not raising lots of kids. There is a difference.”

Yep, these parents are yet more people having babies then dumping the responsibilities on someone else. The dumpees are yet more children raising children.

The other thing that seems a little creepy to me is that the girls in particular are not being raised to have any educational or professional goals. They are basically being raised to become wives and mothers. I realize this has much to do with their religious convictions, but you can be religious and still have a life outside of being a housewife. I’d bet my laptop that at least one of these kids does not share the religious beliefs of their parents anyway.

As far as it being a crying shame that the older kids help with the younger siblings… that’s how ‘normal’ families seem to work, even with only 2 or 3 kids. Plus, while its true they may not like it all the time, when you live that way and it’s simply what is expected it’s not that big of a deal.

Mom “Uhh…you! What’s your sticker say?”
Kid “Number 14″
Mom “Wash the dishes and tell 5 to change 17″

It costs anywhere from 125,000 to 250,000 per child
http://moneycentral.msn.com/articles/family/kids/tlkidscost.asp

and thats when you actually kick them out at 18
Its perfectly reasonable to get some of that back with a television show.

So which of these kids do you think don’t deserve to live? Are the first two children more valuable than the last ones because they would have been in the “acceptable” amount of children to have?

I’m sure to the parents each of these children is of infinate worth. To suggest that these kids should never have been born is insulting. What makes your life more valuable than theirs?

And when did it become a bad thing to be a mother and raise children? Feminism isn’t about foregoing motherhood, it’s about being able to choose what we do with our lives. Her choice to raise children is as valuable to society as another woman’s to be a doctor, or a teacher or flip burgers for a living.

Do I think 18 kids is a lot? Yep. But that’s her choice and it used to be that 18 kids was not entirely uncommon.