Enough is Enough!?

It is rare that I use the word "hate". There are only a few things in life that I can honestly say I hate. Paris Hilton, seafood, hospitals, small-minded people... that about sums it up. But right now, I'm on the verge of adding another one to that list. The Duggar's.

If you're not familiar with the Duggar family then I envy you. I wish I wasn't familiar with them, because the more familiar I get, the more that hate word keeps flying out of my mouth. Ok, I'll just put it out there. I hate the Duggar's. Let me explain.

The Duggar's are a conservative Baptist family from Arkansas that, quite frankly, don't know when to quit. The parents, Jim-Bob and Michelle (yeah, I just said Jim-Bob... as in Jim and Bob put together in an effort to sound as backwards hillbilly as possible) have 18 children. EIGHT-TEEN CHILDREN!!! I'll give you a moment to absorb that information...

I hope you're ok after that factoid because it only gets better. These 18 lovely children all have names starting with "J". Hate. Ready for this list of names? Grab a barf bag... here goes... Joshua, Jana, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger (they must have really been pissed when they realized Ginger wasn't spelled with a J after all) Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah (umm...yeah...), Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, and Jordyn-Grace. I don't know about you, but I'm nauseous.

So, my first real issue with the Duggar's is this... clearly when you have this many children you would not have enough time to give each child the love and care they deserve. If you're disagreeing with me right now I'd like to share this info with you- in the Duggar home, you have to put your name on a sign-up sheet, well in advance, for one-on-one time with mom. TIME WITH YOUR OWN MOTHER!? What in the hell is wrong with these people!? Yeah, they try to say that they get all the love that they need from not only their parents, but also their older "buddy" sibling. Yes, this family operates on the "buddy system". As in, an older sibling is paired up with a younger sibling, to basically do their mother's job that she can't do because she's too busy getting pregnant. All I know is that when I was growing up, if I had to sign up to talk to my own mother I certainly wouldn't feel loved.

My second issue with this family, is that these children are home-schooled. What!? I have nothing against home-schooling (well, I shouldn't say "nothing" against it...) but how in the sam hell can these children get a decent education at home??? The ages of these kids range from 1 month to 20 years, so I would sure love to hear how that works. From 8:00-9:00: kindergarten, 9:00-9:15: snack, 9:30-10:30: 1st grade- but since Ginger has viola practice this afternoon we have to combine 1st and 2nd grade, so if you're in 1st grade just try and keep up and if you're in 2nd grade you'll just have to be patient, from 10:30-11:00: the women prepare lunch while the men do yard work, 11:00-12:00: lunch, 12:00-12:30: women do dishes and clean up after lunch while men study the bible, 12:30-1:30: 3rd grade, 1:30-2:30: bible study- all grades, 2:30-3:30: 4th grade, well... looks like school day is over, sorry everyone only got an hour of school today and 1/2 of you didn't learn anything at all. Maybe tomorrow, but maybe not, we'll see. Spare me...

Alright, I could go on for pages and pages about the 900 other reasons that I hate the Duggar's but for now I'll just touch on one more subject. Dating. Or lack of dating. The Duggar's believe in saving yourself for "the One God has chosen for you". Fine, whatever. I disagree, but I respect your belief on that subject, BUT, they're taking it WAAAAY too far. Not only do they believe in saving yourself for "the One" but because of this, they don't believe in dating. I can't even find the words to explain this, so I'll just quote the Duggar Wikipedia page directly... "Casual dating is forbidden; instead, the older children are taught that a marriage partner should be sought through a form of courtship (which requires the young man to seek permission from the girl's father to begin the relationship, even if both parties are adults). All meetings between the engaged couple have a chaperon to accompany them and they believe in saving their affections and intimacy, up to and including kissing, for marriage." In layman's terms... you can't even KISS ANYONE until you marry them. I'm trying to picture what my life would be like if that's how I was raised and I'm on the verge of crying out of pity for these poor children.

The oldest Duggar, Joshua, just got married to a lovely, and equally as brainwashed young lady last September. True to form, these two did not kiss until they said "I do". To get the full feeling of awkwardness, I'd like to share with you this charming video I found on Josh and his wife, Anna's website.

AWKWARD...................

Ok... I've said enough for now. I'll let you form your own opinion about the Duggar's. Feel free to peruse their websites to learn more about their family orchestra, their multiple TV shows, and if you happen to run across Michelle Duggar's trick to makin' her hair look so good, please let me know.

http://www.duggarfamily.com/
http://health.discovery.com/tv/duggars/duggars.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duggar_family