Duggar Derangement Syndrome – a case study

An example of a leftosphere freak out over the Duggar baby courtesy of Rockstar Mommy.

This is one frisk I certainly enjoyed doing!

Speaking of television, I was watching the Discovery Channel the other night and they had on one of their specials about The Duggars. You know, the family that pops out babies like an automatic tennis ball thrower? Yeah.

What a moronic comment. In fact, Michelle Duggar commented that this labor was still labor (“they call it labor for a reason”} and that although it was one of her easiest deliveries that’s all a matter of perspective. It was childbirth for crying out loud and even the easiest birth is not without a bit of pain and suffering on mom’s part. The tennis ball thrower comment was degrading and unwarranted, a blatant ad hominem and attempt to dehumanize Mrs. Duggar.

The special was filmed a few years ago when they only -ONLY!- had fifteen kids, back when they were amateurs. I read an article last week that said they just pumped out their seventeenth child. Seven-fucking-teen. And, I’m sorry, does this not piss anybody else off?

As Tony so aptly noted in his description of DDS (Duggar Derangement Syndrome), the leftosphere is unable apparently to express great emotion without the use of the F word. You can use F*** as an adjective, adverb, noun or pronoun – pretty much any part of speech and in this case as a numeral. How the birth of a child into a family Rockstar Mommy neither knows or lives near affects RSM’s own personal urological system is beyond me.

I try really hard not to be judgmental of other people, especially if I do not know them personally. But not judging this family is as hard as giving up the last toke of my crack pipe to my kids…

Uhhh, what?

I submit that perhaps if RSM gives up the crack pipe altogether she might be able to try a little harder at not being so judgmental.

I used to think, hey, it’s their business. If having an immediate family the size of a marching band makes them happy, so be it. I read about them on their site a little bit a while back and although I did find them to be a bit different (“a bit” being a pretty generous term), I don’t usually equate “different” with “bad”; it’s just, well, different. I did find it strange and almost offensive when I read that they considered the birth control pill to be immoral and how when they had a miscarriage while on the birth control pill early on, that they considered it the same as having an abortion. But, that’s their opinions, which they’re entitled to. And to each his own, right?

Right. And this is what is really grinding the gears of the pro-contraception, pro-choice left. They hate it when anyone religious or conservative says anything about their favorite sacred icons of birth control and abortion, but they are beside themselves in the face of the Duggar family who are living a lifestyle that is everything they dread and oppose. Their dilemma is how to oppose the other side of “choice”, the other side of a woman’s right to “her own body.” Because if the woman has a right to not get pregnant, or to end a pregnancy, than the other side of that coin has got to be Mrs. Duggar. And they absolutely can’t stand that.

But then my husband changed my mind about them and their situation. I’ve mentioned on here before that he is the oldest of 12 children in his family and he is the first to tell you that he doesn’t agree with people having such a large number of children. And he’s 100% against the lifestyle of the Duggar family. Why? Because he lived it. He lived it being the oldest of twelve, not even bing able to imagine being the youngest of seventeen. But, being the oldest of twelve, he was responsible for taking care of all the younger children while his parents tried to earn enough money to put food on the table for all of them. Everyone went without, well, most of everything, because there was never enough money, never enough hands, and never enough time. Everyone sacrificed because of the choices that their parents made for them.

There are so many logical fallacies in this tale of woe it’s hard to decide where to start. How about if I start with an anecdote of my own. Mr. Pete is the 8th of 9th children. He loved it. There was always someone to play with and talk to. He felt part of something bigger than himself and he absolutely wouldn’t have it any other way. He once asked his oldest sister what she thought about being the oldest of nine and she said she didn’t know any differently. She loved each baby as it came to the home. It never occurred to her to be resentful. She grew up to be an ICU nurse. Apparently taking care of others lead her to a career of service instead of bitter resentments and selfishness.

Going without isn’t something that only occurs in large families or mega large families. But I submit that it’s not always a bad thing to go without and it certainly isn’t always a bad thing to sacrifice for each other.

And no matter what any of these people say, it is IMPOSSIBLE to give 17 individual children the attention that they need. I have a hard enough time juggling two.

This was a very common theme in the blogosophere. Because a mom of 2 can’t handle, whatever it is they think they need to handle, how the heck can Mrs. Duggar do it. That is a logical deduction fallacy. Secondly, there’s a lot of rhetoric about “time with the kids” but I also submit that that is a myth created by the have-it-all feminists who came up with “quality time.” It’s hard to imagine that our great great grandparents crossing the great plains of America worried about having “quality time” with their kids! But those kids grew up to be great contributors to our country and society! They played worked hard and played hard with each other and developed deep family and community bonds. If you had told Ma Ingals that she needed to spend “quality time” with Laura, Mary and Carrie, she would have looked at you as if you were nuts! Living and working together IS REAL QUALITY TIME with your kids. And that’s what the Duggar’s do.

I know people can do it just fine with 2, 4, 6… But 17? It’s just not possible, given that that’s nearly the equivalent of 2/3’s of the hours of the day. Not to mention that cost. Can you imagine what the expense is just for bread, milk, and eggs alone?

Mrs. Duggar says they live on $5000 a month, debt free.

The endless string of hand-me-downs those kids must be forced to take and wear?

Someone needs to introduce Rockstar Mom to the Frugal Bloggers!

Can you imagine helping 17 children with their homework? Bath times? Packing lunches? Breaking up fights must be like trying to get a prison riot under control… And the dishes?! And, ohmygod, the UTILITY BILLS?!

Let’s see… RSM appears to be unaware that the Duggar’s homeschool. So they don’t have to worry about homework and packing lunches. The rest of it just takes organizational skills that seem to be beyond RSM. The utilities are included in the $5000 a month that Mrs. Duggar says covers their expenses every month.

But, that’s just it… Do they really have the bills? Are they like my husband’s family, a family who rarely ever had milk in the refrigerator because it was “too expensive” (which explains his passionate love affair with milk nowadays, drinking anywhere from 2-5 glasses a day), or are they getting outside help to pay for it? Because they’ve openly admitted that they’re not independently wealthy and that they receive “helping hands”… So what is a helping hand? Receiving money, food, clothing, and gifts from the state, churches, neighbors, and corporations? (I guess a free trip to DisneyLand is considered a “helping hand”, you know, since meeting Mickey is necessary for human survival.) Either way, it’s not cool. Your kids deserve to have milk, milk that YOU supplied for them. (Obviously I mean in cases like the Duggars, who had this many children willingly.)

For cryin out loud, did this woman READ ANYTHING ABOUT THE DUGGARS before she decided to write this rant? Not only do the Duggars live well with no debt, they are quite industrious and creative in how they make extra income for the family and acquire the goods and services they need. And again she is projecting her husband’s experience on to the Duggar’s and it’s making her mad all over again. It’s kind of funny.

I’m sorry. If you want to have 17 kids, that’s your business… if you can pay for them and give them the individual attention that all children need. But I just don’t see how that’s humanly possible at 17. And if it’s not possible, then it’s everybody else’s business, too. I don’t know if they do accept state assistance (although they are NOT registered for Welfare), but if I lived in Arkansas, I’d be pretty concerned that part of my tax dollars were helping feed a family that keeps growing and growing just because they… do they even have a reason for it? Other than the fact that God told them to do it or whatever?

From the Duggar Family web site

If I were those kids, I’d be pretty pissed that my parents forced me to raise their children for them because there are too many for 2 people to handle and that I had to wear 6 year old underwear that belonged to 3 of my older sisters…

Heck I just realized that some of my nursing bras are 14 years old!! I’m going to cover this myth of childhood and teen age years in another post.

There are a lot of people who defend the Duggars and say that anyone who speaks against them are “just jealous”. You’ve got to be kidding me, right? Calling someone “jealous” for speaking out against a family who can’t afford, nor give attention to all of their children which they willingly became pregnant with and gave birth to, is like saying I’m jealous that an inmate gets free cable television in jail.

How very Freudian. She associates having a large family with being in prison.

Maybe, I dunno, some people just disagree with the practice of having more children than you can take care of by yourself, at least one of those people being of a family of 14. Just a thought. But, who knows, maybe I’m just jealous that I’m not going to be in a wheelchair by the time I’m 50, carrying my uterus around in a bag.

Another not so subtle ad hominem at Mrs. Duggar’s person.

I type medical reports for an incontinence clinic and pelvic prolapses can occur to any woman at anytime and surprisingly – even women who have never had children. This is treatable.

Bottom line, DDS seems to present itself with a strange need to cast aspersions on the Duggar family for having a large family but at the same time remain “nonjudgemental” and pro”choice.” Having to walk that impossible tight rope causes stomach churning and heads to pinch off at the neck. This syndrome seems endemic mostly in the liberal left of the blogosophere and media.

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