to think they really should just stop?

[GreenMonkies]

The Duggers who else? Baby #19 is on the way.....

Michelle and Jim-Bob, it's not a clown car.......

[drlove8]

......... mrs duggers Afterpains must be worse than the births ! .... poor woman.

[drlove8]

Cheerfulyank - - .... why did ANGELINA AND MADONNA go abroad to adopt then? could they not have helped some of the needy children from america? ..... oh sorry forgot ... that wouldnt have grabbed the headlines in the same way....

[CheerfulYank]

Believe me drlove,I've asked myself the same thing. I try not to judge because when it comes down to it, they have given a family to a child that didn't previously have one, and that's always a good thing. HOWEVER, knowing what I know about the vast number of waiting foster kids, it makes me wonder why they didn't attempt that.

Because of our system, which tries as hard as it can to reunite children with their biological families-even when they shouldn't IMO-, many of them are older (8 and up) by the time they're availiable for adoption. Also many have problems from being displaced so many times as well as issues from abuse they've suffered previously. So foster care adoption isn't for everyone, even though there's clearly a need and it's virtually free whereas international adoption costs tens of thousands of dollars.

Sorry to get so off topic!

[footinmouth]

Will there be any genes left to mix after 19 kids??

[MrsEricBanaMT]

oh yes

[MrsEricBanaMT]

we have more than 10 each

[drlove8]

CY , true .I would love to give a home and family to one of those 100,000 children , im in scotland so i dont know if it would be allowed and there are so many kids here.
wouldnt it be a great if mr &mrs dugger would adopt just one , instead of having another themselves. i think they'd be great- they obviously have so much experence of child- care and have a vast family ...a new sibling would have playmates in their "new " brothers and sisters and the duggers would gain so much respect from people who see them now as " breeding machines " .

[CheerfulYank]

That's the funny thing- most countries have a limit as to how many children you can have while adopting...not sure what America's is, honestly! But you can crank out as many bio kids as you want

[juuule]

"the duggers would gain so much respect from people who see them now as " breeding machines " "

I would think that the people who matter to the Duggars and whose opinions they value already respect their choice and don't see them as 'breeding machines'.
I don't think it would be a good idea to adopt a child to prove a point or to gain approval of people who don't understand you anyway.

"crank out as many bio kids as you want"

Is that how you view childbirth? Cranking out kids?

[CheerfulYank]

I knew as I was typing that sentence someone was going to give me the skeptical face! No, I don't, as I have a biological child myself and giving birth to him, while extraordinarily painful was...awe inspiring. I was just being slightly sarcastic. It's two in the morning here, c'mon!

I don't think that drlove meant that the Duggars should adopt to gain approval, rather that if they want more children perhaps they might consider it given the amount of children who are already here and desperately need homes.

[juuule]

Well, you weren't wrong then, were you?

[EyeballsintheSky]

I think it's very easy to sit here in a different country, a different culture and judge their choice of lifestyle. But we are judging them from our perspective and, amazingly that isn't the only perspective there is. More than 3 children here is thought of as excessive but there are very many places around the world where that is a tiny family. Equally there are one or two places where that would be thought of as huge. So the children have to babysit and do some chores, our children (mostly) don't. Different lifestyles and who is to say which is the best?

[juuule]

Cheerfulyank - "So foster care adoption isn't for everyone,"

I also think that you were right with that comment, too, for the reasons you gave among others.

[PuppyMonkey]

Cullumosity.

[CheerfulYank]

Yup. I was just using foster care adoption as an example as it's an avenue I plan to use myself to have a larger family.

[drlove8]

CY - that was exactly what i ment..... why bring another child into the world when there are so many who are already here and need loving families? .
i have what many see as a stupidly large family myself - 8 kids.... 5 are my birth children and 3 came with DH , so are stepkids.... i love them all the same.... and i love to adopt another child at some point in the future...so i sort of see both sides of the argument. But i do think that the duggers are being extream in their extra-large supersize family .... but if they want more kids, why not adopt ?.I FEAR that mrs duggers will die in childbirth if she keeps going .... then 19 kids will be left motherless.

[rupertsabear]

It's like the olden days. My mil was actually the 18th child. Once upon a time married women were almost always either breastfeeding or pregnant until menopause. Not so weird but a bit -unsophisticated- dated.

[ohmeohmy]

FYI in case it hasn't been mentioned before Most prolific mother ever
The greatest officially recorded number of children born to one mother is 69, to the wife of Feodor Vassilyev (b. 1707?c.1782), a peasant from Shuya, Russia. In 27 confinements she gave birth to 16 pairs of twins, seven sets of triplets and four sets of quadruplets.

[GreenMonkies]

ohmeohmy

Really??

How many of them survived??

[cheesesarnie]

i think congratulations to them if thats what they want!by now im sure they are aware of what theyre doing!

[SoupDragon]

Why on this does it say they are "mother/father of 17" when there are 18 children listed?

[drlove8]

mabey the dont count the oldest ? , not exactly a "child" any more IMO .

[oneofmany]

I have namechanged for this as I am revealing very personal information.

I have ten siblings and grew up in a small town where everyone knew who we were because of being part of such a large family. Although I love my brothers and sisters and would be lost without any one of them I hated being different growing up. I can't imagine what life is like for the Duggars being constantly in the public eye.

For some reason some people think if you are part of a large family it gives them free rein to say whatever they like to you. I hated the 'must have had no TV' comments we always got. It would never occur to me to say to an only child 'Your parents must not be having a lot of sex'

It was my parent's decision to have a large family. They both came from large families themselves and it was something they agreed on from the start but it has not been an easy life.

We were not well off and although we are definitely all loved as individuals my parents did struggle to 'parent' because so much time was taken up by just getting us up in the morning, dressed, fed, off to school etc. to concentrate on everyone's seperate talents or interests.

I think it is everyone's right to have the number of children they want but it wouldn't be my choice to have such a large family myself.

[pooexplosions]

I don't see why so many have strong opinions on these people? They are self sufficient, look after themselves, the children seem fairly educated and all play musical instruments, they are healthy and happy. There are far, far worse ways to live than in a large, warm house with lots of siblings and plenty of food and space.
Why are you bothered about the state of her uterus if she isn't? Talk about so not anyone's business......

Its not a lifestyle I would choose, thats for sure, or a belief system that I could subscribe too. But then neither is 5 kids on benefits in a council house, but if anyone starts a thread slagging that off they get royally flamed and run out of town (which I'm fine with but) total double standards.

Leave them alone!

[juuule]

Agree, pooexplosions.