to think that having 18 children is just wrong?

[Rhinestone]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1328007/The-family-prays--gets-bigger-bigger-Meet-devoutly-Christian-Mr-Mrs-Bates-EIGHTEEN-children.html

Wrong on so many levels surely?

"The OP didn't say we shoudl have a china style one child per person system, did she?

Just that she thinks it's wrong which you can agree with or not.

However I agree it is wrong. For a lot of reasons."

No, the OP didn't , but I made the (slightly sarcastic) suggestion that if we are going to start judging and presumably vetting the number of children people have (the OP suggested we'd be over-populted if everyone had lots of children) then a one child policy might be the way to do it.

Your point was?

You can see more of the Bates family on their website.

Having so many kids is a Quiverfull thing. On the face of it, they use the Bible (fairly superficially and uncontextually) to justify using no contraception. Really, though, it's an attempt to breed as many white, straight Republican voters as possible to outpopulate America's blacks, Jews, gays and Democrats.

Personally, though, what I find disturbing is not the number of kids they have but the patriachy which underlies their worldview... women can't go to school higher education or work, can't wear trousers or leave the house without a husband or brother and have their marriages arranged for them. It all comes from a theologically extremely dubious movement called ATI, headed up by a nutjob named Bill Gothard.

A woman calling herself Razing Ruth is writing a blog about having escaped from an attempt of her father to force her into a marriage within the movement. There's also No Longer Quivering, an online support group for women who have left the lifestyle. It can make for disturbing reading.

As Ma says, the biggest proponents of the Quiverfull/ATI movement are the Duggar family, who have their own reality TV show '19 kids and Counting' in the States. The Bates family have popped into a few episodes, and there's insinuations of marriages between their older kids and the Duggar's. Most episodes are available on YouTube...

Ohhh Breastmilk, you follow the same blogs & sites I do :)

I like the fact that the best thing that DM can come up with in visual terms to show their opinion of it is the food at the restaurant

horror - they like hot dogs and chips

If you do start watching the Duggars, look for 15 children & pregnant agin - that was their first ever programe :)

im happy with my 1 but they arent harning anyone like some we see in this country having council houses knocked together to house their growning family, to people like me the bates and the duggers are my worst nightmare, im very happy with my one but its what they want from their lives, their children will never ever be lonely they are brought up to help each other and the family do not owe money and are not on benefits, so what harm are they doing?

MaMoTTaT - that is actually probablythe best food they eat - they live on things like Tatertot casserole

I can't imagine that it's healthy to have that many pregnancies.

I go for the quality not quantity approach to children myself

I think the girls in this family would grow up with the expectation that all they can be is wives and mothers even if they'd only had two.

I don't agree with their views or want their lifestyle, but I don't really care if they choose to have 18 kids. According to Closer they want to have 20 as it's a good number or something.

I also find it strangely amusing that they have more bathrooms than toilets

tatertot casserole? I think that completely deserves a .

Out of interest: how exactly does one make this delight?

With the Duggars, even though Michelle had serious problems in her last pregnancy and little Josie was born at 25 weeks gestation, they are still hoping for more - now that I dont agree with. She has 19 kids to mother, she should not be putting her life at such risk.

Damsel - Duggar Delights

have just googled it - it seems to be mince beef and hash brown casserole

DUGGAR's TATER TOT CASSEROLE
2 lb ground turkey cooked, seasoned, drained
3 2lb bags tater tots
2 cans cream of mushroom
2 cans evaporated milk
2 cans cream of chicken
Brown meat & place in large cass. dish.
Cover with tater tots. Mix soup & milk together.
Pour over top. Bake at 350 for 1 Hour.
(One of Daddy?s Favorites!) Makes 2- 9?X13? pans

except according to MaDuggar's link it's made with minced turkey [boak] [boak] [boak]

They must be constantly constipated.

The recipe is here Scroll about halfway down the page.

Personally, I can't think of anything more disgusting.

MaDuggar I'm so pleased to meet you. I thought I was the only Brit out there with such an odd obesession fascination! How did you get into them?

although rather at the fact that the church they attend states

" The King James Version of the Bible is the official and only translation used by the Church"

and "back it up" with 2 bible references.......that's odd as last time I checked the bible wasn't written in English

Ah and you got there first with the recipe :)

Yucky, yuck yuck.

That's vile. Why not make an actual casserole with real ingredients? It'd have to taste better. Soggy tatertots would be vile.

I think it's very wrong to outsource the job of raising your children to some of your other children - which with this bunch of nutters means the girls.

And I agree with Breastmilk that this is more about breeding more far-right Republicans than it is about liking big families.

And no, I'm not advocating a one-child policy. I just think having 18 children in this day and age, when contraception is available and when (as a previous poster mentioned) we're using the resources of 3.5 planets and when the global population is estimated to be 9 billion by 2050...is wrong.

Michelle Duggar and Kelly Bates both look so young and happy - and far less stressed than I am (especially as ds3 is currently standing beside me whinging because I am daring to cook something he doesn't like for supper - red thai chicken curry - and won't let him have supernoodles instead).

Breastmilk - I saw one of their old specials years ago when they had just had Jackson. Been fascinated since then. I also follow the TWOP forum thread about them. I love TLC programes, I also watch Sister Wives and Jon & Kate plus 8 (or just Kate plus 8 now!)

How about you?

I was under that impression too. I think the problem is, if you get people reading the orginal Hebrew or Greek, they might realise your interpretations of the text are bullshit. It's why it took the Church so long to translate the Bible into anything but Latin, back around 1500...