So how exactly do the Duggars really do it?

There are big families out there, but there are few with seventeen children.  In case you didn’t know, the 17th Duggar, Jennifer, was born on Friday.

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When I first read the news and the newest Duggar’s name, my reaction was not so much along the lines of "OMG I can’t believe those weirdo Jesus freaks are at it again."  What truly caught my attention is that, well, having had sixteen other children all with a first name starting with the letter J, just now do they get to naming one Jennifer? 

Jennifer is a far more common name than, say, Jinger.  And does Jinger rhyme with "zinger" or does it rhyme with "danger"?

*sounds out weirdo name*

Ooh!

It’s GINGER, but spelled "creatively".  God, I hate creative spellings ever so much.  They are just the kind of thing that tells the world, "My parents think they are so very clever, but really they are selfishly stupid and just do not know how to look things up or spell.  Somebody please help me."

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There are some big families out there, but there are fewer who are raising all their children in a wholly parent-run, self-supported, homeschooling venture.

There are big Christian families out there.  This family is a church onto itself.  Even on their FAQ they discuss their DAILY Bible study.  Michelle Duggar describes it as her" favorite part of the day." 

I don’t know what to say, honestly.  I’m on the fence here a little.  One of my favorite blogging artists has an amazing, creepy rendition of the Duggar family, along with some heated commenting.  Click here to see it all.

I guess I have been on the fence with the Duggars for a while but it’s because finding them objectionable or disgusting is such a holier-than-thou, knee-jerk reaction.

What makes us as a society focus so much on the Duggars and their crazy brood and try to pass judgment on them, and not focus instead on people like the Maryland woman who denied ever being pregnant, even though she had a chunk of placenta still inside her body and a badly-cut umbilical cord and police found the body of her stillborn son and three other infant cadavers in her home– presumably infants that she killed herself and/or let die?

That woman, Christy Freeman, has four living children, you know.

So let’s see: three dead in assorted places around the backyard and one dead under the bathroom sink, in the vanity, plus four live ones makes eight total.  She may still be theoretically behind Michelle Duggar but…

… and I’ll just let you think about that "but."  It’s a pretty sick and convoluted tale, and you can do further reading too, by clicking here.

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Maybe we should just be grateful as a society that there are people who choose to rear all the children they conceive and carry to term– instead of killing them gruesomely when they are already big enough to survive outside the body. 

(I’m actually pro-choice, in case you were wondering.  But I gotta tell you: I’m not thrilled with the idea of abortion as habitual contraception method)

Or maybe we should really look into having a fascist régime that controls the number of children (dead or alive) that people are allowed to have, and control others’ fertility as if it were their ability to drink in public, for instance.

Maybe not. 
But certainly, some people make you wish you could control such personal issues sometimes.

Or am I alone in feeling this way?