Counting On Season 8/9/10/11 4: Babies, Babies, Babies

[mollysmom]

On 7/24/2020 at 9:48 AM, fluffernutter said:

Every time I hear Bert and Ernie I remember this: When we first moved into this neighborhood, I met my next door neighbor Bert while outside one day. He was nice, and we chatted briefly. But the next time I saw him, I called him Ernie by accident. He just laughed it off and said he was Bert, not Ernie. ?‍♀️ I felt so dumb. 

That just made me laugh SO hard! That is totally something I would do!

[Satan'sFortress]

On 7/22/2020 at 9:28 AM, QuiverFullofBooks said:

Jana - Jason, Jackson, Josie

Jill - Joy, James, Jennifer 

Jessa - Jeremiah, Justin, Jordyn

Jinger - Jedidiah and Johannah

I never really noticed before--but why was Jana the last of the "big girls" to get a buddy kid?  I remember that Jill asked to be able to care for Joy, but then I wonder why Jana didn't get one of the next babies?

[Coconut Flan]

Those are the ending groups.  Jana had started out with other kids years earlier.

[Markie]

I think at one time Josh and John David were buddies (maybe for the younger twins) I think they wouldn’t be buddies until the children were toilet trained, but would help get the little boys ready in the mornings, helped them with their school work and kept track of them when they went out in a group. When Josh and JD were taken to help build the house, Jer and Jed were reallocated to Jessa and Jinger.  Josiah wasn’t mentioned here, but I bet in the early days he was Jana’s. Joseph wasn’t mentioned either. 

At the same time Jill was making lunch for the whole crew and Jana was making supper for them. I think Michelle did breakfasts. 

Edited July 26, 2020 by Markie

[VeryNikeSeamstress]

Re: Jed & Jer. The imagery of them as Ernie and Bert or Fundie Beavis and Butthead is hilarious. There won't be any monkey spanking in their godly bachelor pad! I would be happy if they used the internet to watch some secular TV and music videos. From what I hear, Beavis and Butthead is getting a reboot soon.

Somebody needs to gift them striped shirts. Or Metallica/Death Rock shirts.

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

I always thought Jana was in charge of all the kids, She was Michelle's go between.  I think JB did/does a lot with the boys. He always seemed to be the more involved parent, if anything to impart the fact that HE is lord and savior over that family & everyone must obey him. 

I also think Joy was the 1st kid handed off I think JB & M could handle the 1st 8 kids without much problem, as Josh, Jana, JD & Jill were more than old enough to put on coats, shoes, jammies, brush teeth etc without supervision. Jill might have needed a bit of help but nothing Jana and or Joshly couldn't help her with, leaving only Jessa, Jinger, Joe & Josiah to need help. I still really think the necessity of the buddies teams came about when Joy was 7/8 months old and M found out she was having twins. having 4 kids 4 & under with the exhaustion of a twin pregnancy & bam, the handing the of the youngest to an older sibling to essentially raise. I do think Joshly & JD helped out a lot with Joe & Si & Jana with Jinger & Jessa but Jill got the 1st baby to care for solely on her own. 

[Coconut Flan]

Michelle has said they started the buddy system when Josh was about 8.  He and John David even had buddies back in the beginning.  

[SassyPants]

Could do the first 8 alone...um, didn’t Michelle have the laundry room breakdown after kid 6, and in walked the laundry fairy? And as far as I can tell, the Duggars and their grifting ways never looked back. I’d say they were outmatched after the first set of twins. 3 kids under 2, for at least 2 months, had to be hard. I think Jill put them over the edge. 4 kids in 38 months time. Like my in-laws with 5 kids in In 4.5 years. 

[clueliss]

I will continue to maintain to these type of people that laundry room breakdowns are God's way of saying 'this is enough!'  They thought themselves better than God and pressed on.

[SassyPants]

2 hours ago, clueliss said:

I will continue to maintain to these type of people that laundry room breakdowns are God's way of saying 'this is enough!'  They thought themselves better than God and pressed on.

What none of these folks will ever acknowledge is that without the help from others, they would never be able to pull it off, and that’s to do a shitty job. The Duggars, Bates, Maxwells and Abbie M is for Mama, all use and abuse relatives, friends and their own children to meet even the most basic of needs. No 2 parents were meant to successfully and healthfully raise mega numbers of kids. Look at the Maxwell brothers, the largest families only have 6 and require a steady flow of help from the unmarried Maxwell sisters. It’s not doable in a day that is never longer than 24 hours. The knock on them has nothing to do with being unable to adequately take care of the kids; no 2 people could. The problem is they refuse to acknowledge the problem and make better choices. Hell, the Duggars, Bates and Maxwells have actually made money shilling false claims.

[Not that josh's mom]

The Duggars are so boring right now that I'm following the Rodrigues. And I didnt even know about them till recently. At least the wedding fiasco has been interesting.

[HeartsAFundie]

So if Michelle started the buddy system when Josh was 8, that would be around 1996 when she was pregnant with Josiah/when Josiah was born.  That would put her at 7/8 kids when it was time for the sister moms to rear their heads.   

And Joy was born in 1997 and Jill, born in 1991, was a six year old taking care of a baby full time.  I'm still letting that one sink in.  The only baby a six year old girl should be taking care of is her American Girl doll.   

No wonder Jill is in therapy now.  

Edited July 27, 2020 by HeartsAFundie

[clueliss]

@HeartsAFundie that fits with the laundry room meltdown timeline.  I believe that was around 7 kids.

[Ever]

38 minutes ago, clueliss said:

@HeartsAFundie that fits with the laundry room meltdown timeline.  I believe that was around 7 kids.

What was the laundry room meltdown?

[JenniferJuniper]

On 7/24/2020 at 9:48 AM, fluffernutter said:

Every time I hear Bert and Ernie I remember this: When we first moved into this neighborhood, I met my next door neighbor Bert while outside one day. He was nice, and we chatted briefly. But the next time I saw him, I called him Ernie by accident. He just laughed it off and said he was Bert, not Ernie. ?‍♀️ I felt so dumb. 

I'm terrible with names. During the Erik and Lyle Menendez murder trial I worked with a guy named Lyle.  Every time I'd see him walking down the hallway towards me, I'd think, "Is it Lyle or Erik? Erik or Lyle?"  And of course, one day I eventually said "Good morning, Erik".  I can still see the look on his face.

[SassyPants]

I’m having insomnia, and this is what I do during these hours when I should be sleeping. I think about the Duggars. Short of Jana getting married and having a spawn, I have some ideas of what I would like to see. How about addressing what, if anything productive, the Duggar men or women do to support their individual families besides the show? What does Ben do for JB? What about all JB’s sons, do any of them work outside of the show? What does a work day, aside from the show, look like? I remember JB mentioning that he has 40 acres and would like all of his kids to live on that land. Well, he has 20 kids, so divide and develop that land. If they are all so handy, it should be easy enough enough to do. I’d love to see each adult family design and build a home. I wish TLC would realize that the Duggars weren’t interesting or worthy enough for a weekly show until they had FIFTEEN kids. A family with 1, 2 or 3 kids is not unique enough to carry a weekly series. No one wants to see Ben and Jessa taking their kids to the zoo, or anyone taking their kids to the DDS. 
 

Also, where do the Duggars worship? Where is Mr. Caldwell a Rev.? It’s not Cross Church, right? I know with COVID, Fellowship isn’t really possible or advisable, but maybe they need to get back to their roots, because right now, I can’t see how this show continues to breathe. They aren’t unique or interesting enough. Outside the possibility of Jana, there is no one of interest doing anything life changing. Does anyone one care if J-boy number 12/20 is getting married or if Jessa is having her 4th kid? How does that possibly warrant or carry a TV show? 

Edited July 28, 2020 by SassyPants

[baldricks_turnip]

I'd be interested in all the things you mentioned. I'm actually pretty easy to please and don't find CO as dull as most do, maybe because I am at home with a 2 year old and a 3 month old so I do find it interesting to see how others in a similar boat do life. In Joy's recent video about going for an appointment, I was entertained by how she was structuring her morning with feeding Gideon while she sorted clothes, etc. I would be interested in the show following the different hurdles of parenting (Henry's speech, etc), but I don't like whenever they try to make JB + M out to be experts just because of how many they spawned.

That said, none of this really follows on from what brought the Duggars fame in the first place. I'd watch a 'day-in-the-life-with-young-kids' show with families of just about any background. To focus on what is unique about the Duggars, I would want them to explore how it feels to live in a society but reject many of its norms, to have a family of origin so large that you don't feel the need for many social connections outside of it, how isolated they are from popular culture, and if/how their beliefs and lifestyles are changing as they become (slightly) independent adults. But they don't want to do anything like that with any depth, instead we just get "do you know who Elvis is?"

[clueliss]

11 hours ago, Ever said:

What was the laundry room meltdown?

Michelle apparently had a "laundry room meltdown" long about child 7 or so.  And then a neighbor or church member stepped in and helped with laundry and Michelle delegated out buddy teams to help her with the child rearing load.  (This means she was stressed out and losing her crap because she had more children than she could handle - and instead of saying we should stop - they continued having children)

[Tangy Bee]

11 minutes ago, clueliss said:

Michelle apparently had a "laundry room meltdown" long about child 7 or so.  And then a neighbor or church member stepped in and helped with laundry and Michelle delegated out buddy teams to help her with the child rearing load.  (This means she was stressed out and losing her crap because she had more children than she could handle - and instead of saying we should stop - they continued having children)

What about her saying that the Bible says praise God during the good times and the bad? There were possibly more melt downs but that's the only one she mentioned. I really don't think the Duggar dudes are prepared to take care of more than 5 children. The pressure to not screw up was probably mounted by Josh's scandal. Looks like all the young men are staying close.

 

 

[allthegoodnamesrgone]

All we know is what they've told us and that was Joy was the 1st kid handed off to a sister mom, and if she was 6ish months old then Jill would be just about to turn 7, which is way to young to be caring for an infant. Even Jana, at 8 1/2, was way to young to be caring for an infant. 

Was it ever confirmed when the LRMD happened? I've read that it happened as early as after the 1st 6 kids and as late as after the 12th kid. 

[llg1234]

19 Kids and Counting Counting On Season 4 Episode 11 "The Duggar Dash" Part 1

Spoiler

Everyone is at the TTH and Michelle has them gather around to tell them that they're going to have a race around town, since everyone had so much fun at the corn maze. Michelle and Lauren will be staying at home to watch the little kids. The teams are based on the old buddy teams (with some tweaks) they used back when they had a lot of kids still at home. The teams are: 

Team 1 (Green) - Joy, Austin, Tyler, Jennifer, James
Team 2 (Red) - Jim Bob, Joe, Kendra, Johannah
Team 3 (Blue) - Jana, Josiah, Jason, Jackson, Josie
Team 4 (Yellow) - Ben, Jessa, Jeremiah, Justin, Jordyn (+Ivy)

Joy feels confident since they have a wide variety of talents on their team. Joe worries they're not going to be very fast, Kendra says it's because she's "great with child" (aka due really soon). JB jokes they might be the birthing team. Kendra has a shirt on that says 'A Blessing is on the Way Psalms 127:3'

The first challenge consists of picking one person from the team to eat a mystery dish. The determine which dish each team gets, they play a round of musical 'chairs' using four different colored tiles. JB is an asshole and says Kendra should do the food challenge since she won't be able to do any of the physical stuff, but she doesn't want to get something gross and throw up. Jessa says JB himself should do it and he eventually agrees. The dishes are: tater tot casserole, haggis, cricket tacos, escargot. JB hopes he doesn't get the haggis, since he hated it when they went on a trip to Scotland. He says it's one of the worse things he could put in his mouth. Ben liked escargot when they were in France, but he isn't sure about the stuff that's been sitting on a paper plate at the TTH. Lauren plays the piano and they land on their dishes. JB gets cricket tacos, Tyler gets haggis, Jackson gets TTC, Ben gets escargot. Tyler doesn't know what's in haggis, so he seems to eat it without much issue, despite JB trying to tell him what's in it. Ben finishes first, even though the escargot was cold and slimy. As soon as they pull out of the parking lot, Jordyn has to go to the bathroom. They take a bathroom break and Joy's team gets ahead of them. JB complains about his cricket tacos and takes forever to finish them.

Second challenge is at a thrift store (Potter's House Thrift). Each team gets $5 and has to find an item that matches their team color. Each member of the team has to wear the item and have it on when crossing the finish line. Everyone struggles with staying right on the speed limit while driving to the thrift store. Ben was going 49 mph in a 50 zone, so Jessa keeps telling him he needs to go 50. Joy's team gets one item and cuts it up among the team members, rather than getting 5 separate items. Jana's team have the same idea. Joe's team is last place because it took JB so long to finish his food.

Third challenge is at a climbing gym. Joy's team gets there first and James climbs up the rock wall without a problem. Jana's team arrives next and Josiah is climbing the wall. Jessa's team is right behind them and Jeremiah climbs up. They end up getting ahead of Jana's team. Joe's team was dead last and he climbed up. He ended up leaving their next challenge at the climbing gym when he was putting on his shoes, so they have to run back to get the paper.

TL;DR - they race around town. That's it. This is going to be the entire episode.

Counting On Season 4 Episode 11 "The Duggar Dash" Part 2

Spoiler

Fourth challenge is back at the tree house at the TTH and has to do with matching shoes. They have to solve a math problem and find a pair of shoes thats size matches the answer. The math questions:
 - Joy's team: number of the 19 kids who share a middle name (2 - Jed and Jer both have the middle name Robert) with  each other times the number of years JoyStin have been married. They've been married 2.5 years, so they're not sure if the number they need to use is 2 or 2.5. Austin thinks 2 x 2.5 is 10 for some reason and Joy explains to him that 2 x 2.5 is 5. They decide to find a size 4.
 - Jessa's team: JB's age divided by the number of Duggar daughters. Jessa thought JB was 56, but Jordyn insists he's 54. She looks it up and he is, in fact, 54. They have to find a size 6.
 - Jana's team: number of family members with Dec birthdays plus number of couples that were married in November. They're not sure if Jed and Jer's birthday counts as one or two and they also forget that JAbbie's anniversary was also in Nov. They grab a size 8, which is wrong. Jana can't believe she forgot her twin's anniversary.
 - Joe's team: age of the 15th Duggar (Jackson is 15) minus the total number of washer and dryers (8). They have to find a pair of size 7 shoes.

It's very hard to find shoes at the Duggar house. Austin says he lost a pair of shoes over there about 10 years ago. JB says he's missing one of his dress shoes, but still hangs on to the other one in case they find it one day. 

Fifth challenge (OMFG, HOW MANY CHALLENGES  ARE THERE???) is a needle in a haystack. There's a big pile of hay across from the TTH and they have to find their instructions in the hay. Joy's team starts searching and James drives over with a skidsteer. They still haven't found it when Jessa's team arrives, so they're starting to feel worried. Jessa's team finds their clue first. Austin finds the blue (Joe) and red (Jana) teams, but not theirs. Jessa's team wins. Joy shouts out hints to the two remaining teams as they drive away. Austin says 2nd place is the first losers. He and Joy are disappointed, since they had pretty much been in the lead up until that point. Kendra starts having contractions while digging through the hay. JB wants to give up since it's getting cold. Jana's blue team decides to quit, but Joe's red team doesn't want to give up, so Austin goes out and helps them.

1st - Yellow/Jessa's team
2nd - Green/Joy's team
3rd - Red/Joe's team
4th - Blue/Jana's team

Several of the couples say they should do this every year (that's fine, just don't film it). JB thanks Michelle for planning all of this and goes in for a kiss, which she avoids. She says, "no cricket kisses!"

Next week - Jeremy gets a skateboarding lesson from a dude named Brian and talks about his ~dark~ past, Kendra gives birth to Addison

TL;DR - Jessa & Ben's team wins. Congrats. 

Edited July 28, 2020 by llg1234

[nst]

oh boy thank you @llg1234

since I only got 4 hours of sleep last night (thank you menopause) this is good to know.....

[SassyPants]

1 hour ago, nst said:

oh boy thank you @llg1234

since I only got 4 hours of sleep last night (thank you menopause) this is good to know.....

I also recorded about 4 hours last night! 

[Idlewild]

That sounds incredibly dull TV. One for the diehard fans I think.

These daft games and challenges they do defeat the purpose of the show- showing how kids from this unusual family function outside the family and the choices they make. It’s just slapstick humour with JB as Bozo the clown.

[SassyPants]

12 minutes ago, Idlewild said:

That sounds incredibly dull TV. One for the diehard fans I think.

These daft games and challenges they do defeat the purpose of the show- showing how kids from this unusual family function outside the family and the choices they make. It’s just slapstick humour with JB as Bozo the clown.

Yep, but that’s the whole point. This show has no theme or purpose at all. Initially, the Duggars claimed that the show was their ministry, but we all know how that fizzled. And of course a young couple with 15 kids all dressed alike was a draw, in a freak show/ car crash kind of way, but now it’s about nothing. Apparently These people don’t do anything useful or interesting, so why do they have a media platform? Aside from Jana, the Duggar daughter weddings, which do seem to attract a fan base (See the current Rodrigues thread), but we won’t see a Duggar girl get married for a long while. The Duggar males are uninteresting and no one seems to give a fig about their lives. What else is there? Answer, nada.