Duggars vs. Bates

[ladypuglover]

I like some others think that the Duggar family and the Bates family have a little competition with each other. First it is with the who can have more babies, then the lets have our sons become politicians. Now the Bateses are stepping up and allowing their oldest to get married. Will the Duggars return volley by having Jana or JD get married? What do you think the next move is?

[gilora]

My money is on either:

John David courtship or Kelly Bates pregnant again.

[Kitten]

Well, the Duggars are a hairsbreadth in front at the moment, based on the number of kids/children/little ones/blessings/rewards they have, including a critical preemie who survived, and the fact that Josh is already married and off to the baby races. But, the Bates could get bonus points for having the first GIRL to get married (not that I'm hoping for that outcome, BTW).

But there is definitely a fierce competition between them, despite the show of shiny white teeth and hearty guffaws when they get together. Whether it would be as bad without the "encouragement" of TLC is debatable, but it's entertaining to the rest of us. Sort of. In a sick, twisted kind of way.

[Feberin]

I've been saying for awhile that the Duggars need to marry off another child to keep ratings up. I almost wouldn't be shocked to see a double wedding with both JD and Jana getting married off. Otherwise if Michelle fails to produce baby #20 the show will probably get canceled soon.

[moreorlessnu]

EVERY one attending a Bates birth will be immodestly exposed...

[bananacat]

I think that the Bateses are a few years younger than the Duggars, so they have some time to catch up. But I bet it really stings Kelly that Michelle got to have her micro-preemie trophy while her pregnancies continue to go bad just a little too early to have the same kind of token blessing.

I do think that Kelly will continue getting pregnant and if she has another kid, Michelle will be pregnant soon after.

I wonder if the rivalry will prevent them from teaming up and marrying their kids to each other. If they want to go for a grankids competition, they should marry off the oldest 5 or so in each family ASAP. How old is Zack compared to Smuggar anyway?

[Chrystal-J]

I've been saying for awhile that the Duggars need to marry off another child to keep ratings up. I almost wouldn't be shocked to see a double wedding with both JD and Jana getting married off. Otherwise if Michelle fails to produce baby #20 the show will probably get canceled soon.

Yes, that show has gotten so boring I only watch it when I'm busy doing housework. (It's either that or the radio.)

[marmalade]

I think that the Bateses are a few years younger than the Duggars

Nope. Both Gil and Kelly were born in 1965 and graduated from college in 1987 (transferred together from a X-tian school in SC to one in TN so they were an item for at least two years before they married). That makes them the same age as the Boobster (46) and a year older than Michelle. Both clocks are ticking big time, but as Doc Sharon has said over multiple boards, the type of c-section Michelle had drops her chances of conception, much less a successful pregnancy from the standpoint of pre-eclampsia (could happen even sooner) to just about zero. Kelly's fertile myrtle, but can they afford more progesterone to keep her fetus viable? I don't know how early she can receive treatment, but she announced her last pregnancy before the pee dried on the stick; the Bateses are definitely not shy about announcing. The Duggars' entire schtick is built on a miscarriage due to the Pill; she could never announce a miscarriage now and save face (and she may have had a couple since Josie was born that we'll never know about).

[Jessica]

Josh was born in March 1988 and Zack was born in December 1988.

[ladypuglover]

I still think Kelly is ahead of Michelle if you only count the pregnancies. Michelle has had only (only!!) 18 pregnancies (I think) where Kelly has never had a twin birth and admits to have many miscarriages. So I think Kelly has been pregnant a lot more than Michelle has.

Well that is one thing the Duggars can't one up the Bateses about.

[clarinetpower]

I miss Doc Sharon. :(

[Jessica]

What happened to Doc Sharon?

[PennySycamore]

Two sets of Duggar twins mean that J'chelle's had 17 pregnancies that resulted in a live birth. I wouldn't be a bit surprised that there have been miscarriages that that we don't know about.

[moreorlessnu]

What happened to Doc Sharon?

I was just going to ask the same thing. She's terrific.

[gilora]

Re: Doc Sharon, if she had any sense at all, she said good-bye to the Duggars after Anna had Mackenzie at home with only a doula present.

[apple1]

Re: Doc Sharon, if she had any sense at all, she said good-bye to the Duggars after Anna had Mackenzie at home with only a doula present.

What are you talking about? DocSharon was/is? a FJ poster. Not Michelle's OB.

Either that, or I cannot make sense of what you posted.

[IReallyAmHopewell]

My money is on either:

John David courtship or Kelly Bates pregnant again.

You can also read my fictional view of what I think will happen in the thread

[gilora]

What are you talking about? DocSharon was/is? a FJ poster. Not Michelle's OB.

Either that, or I cannot make sense of what you posted.

My bad. Confused Doc Sharon with Dr. Sarver. :oops:

[lilwriter85]

I think the Bates family will end up having more kids.

As for the show, I think interest in the show is dwindling. I agree with others either a marriage or another pregnancy for Michelle will be needed if they want to keep the show around for a couple of more years. I think TLC is sort of trying to use Josh's family to keep interest in the show.

[ophelia]

But then they would still have to invent something new.. because we already saw Smuggar getting fatter with nearly each episode. And we already know that Anna will have a new blessing every year, so no big surprise with that. They really need to move out of that tiny house, but I can't really see a moving-special because "2 kids and moving in" doesn't sound a bit as interesting as "16 kids and moving in".

An interesting turning point of the show could be, if Smuggar really went to college to get a Law Degree. They could make that out.. but honestly.. we all know Smuggar would probably never make it through college and before J'chelle s little baby boy fails he never tries..

[moreorlessnu]

An interesting turning point of the show could be, if Smuggar really went to college to get a Law Degree. They could make that out.. but honestly.. we all know Smuggar would probably never make it through college and before J'chelle s little baby boy fails he never tries..

But first we'd have to watch him slog through a 4 year Bachelors degree before he could go to law school for a JD degree. Plus, he'd have to take the LSAT, and get a high enough score to get admitted into law school.

[silverspoons]

If and that is a huge if Josh finshes his online BA, he would most likely go to online law school. No LSAT, all the online school wants is 30k! but you can only sit for the bar in CA. I see Josh wanting his "law degree" not to sit for the bar but to enter politics.

It will be interesting to see what Zac Bates life is like after being married 2 years, will he had a small business and 2 kids like Josh? or will he take a different route?

[ophelia]

Yes, that is going to be really interesting. But isn't Zac also doing some kind of "study" and what kind of business does he run to provide for his family. I am also curious to see in which way Sara will be able to pursue her music career or if her marriage will be the end of Southern Raised!

[moreorlessnu]

If and that is a huge if Josh finshes his online BA, he would most likely go to online law school. No LSAT, all the online school wants is 30k! but you can only sit for the bar in CA. I see Josh wanting his "law degree" not to sit for the bar but to enter politics.

And the Cali bar pass rate is something like 30% or 40%.

[silverspoons]

I think the pass rate for the CA bar from people who studied online is closer to 10-15%. There was a big discusssion when Bryan Masche the dad on raising sextuplets said he was going to law school online last year. People totally attcked him(rightfully so when his ex-wife was working overtime to support the 6 kids and he was going back to school online for 3 years in his pjs in his moms basement)with facts on his facebook page that online law school had a low pass rate and rarely works out for out of state students. Bryan reminded me alot of Josh/JimBob combined. He had political aspirations (he still claims to be running in 2012), he had rental properties, he was way into the calvary chapel and admitted he married a trophy wife who he wanted to be at his side as he grew his politcal career and rental empire.