Addicted to Parenting

With the launch of the fourth season of The Learning Channel’s reality TV series “19 Kids and Counting” eventually one must beg the question, “How many children is too many?” The series, formerly known as “17 Kids and Counting” and later, “18 Kids and Counting,” follows Arkansas couple Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar along with their massive herd of children through their activities in everyday life. Jim Bob, a former member of the Arkansas House of Representatives, is a hard-core right-wing conservative Christian who believes strongly in a foundation of good morals and values accompanied by an extreme faith in God. Michelle, who met Jim Bob during her conversion to Christianity, has also become a devout believer in God, which she credits with her decision to discontinue the use of birth control. After suffering a miscarriage in the 1980’s, Jim Bob and Michelle decided to allow God to take over in deciding how many children they would ultimately have.

Unfortunately for the Duggars, the decision to allow God to make this choice on their behalf has led them to the staggering number of 19… and counting. Some might call this a blessing, but in today’s society the family appears instead more like a real-life representation of what we would expect from “The Simpsons” favorite redneck “Cletus the Slack Jaw Yokel.” The family’s eldest child, Josh (age 22), has also begun conceiving his own family with his wife Anna who comes from a similar background of a family of 10. Josh and Anna’s first child, Mackynzie, is now 6 months in age and with Jim Bob and Michelle’s most recent child Josie being 4 months in age, Mackynzie now has an aunt who is actually younger than she is. With this startling fact, the Duggar family has now succeeded in completely destroying the lines of generation.

While choosing not to use birth control is a decision that should warrant respect, the Duggar family taken it so far into the realm of the extreme that it has become questionable at best. While they have chosen to share the gift of life with their children, they are also taking away from what a quality life should entail. While Jim Bob and Michelle focus their attention on the youngest of their children, the older ones are then forced to give up the joy and fun of the youth experience because of their inherited responsibility to take care of the middle children who are left seemingly neglected by the situation. We can all hope that Jim Bob and Michelle will eventually see the negativity that their constant child bearing is bringing upon their other children and hopefully they will come to the decision to halt the process so that instead of bringing more meaningless lives into the world they can begin to enrich the ones that are already here.