The moment that made you think 'these people are mental'

[JenniferJuniper]

Really? I heard it as, 'Don't cry, Josiah,' and I'm got that as a sure sign that he was upset. Also, not to sound rude, but who the hell could Josiah call? His only contacts are his family and the camera crew. He has no friends outside of family.

Several of the kids looked upset when Josiah left the scene - just a few seconds after the announcement - and several of the girls called out to him. Whatever the reason (personally I think he went to throw up), it had to have been a huge no-no for him to do that during a big TLC moment that could not be re-enacted. Boob had to have been seriously pissed off at him, and I‘m sure the kids who saw what was happening were worried for Josiah. TLC did some careful freeze-frame editing to distract viewers, but if you go through the scene very slowly and watch everyone's reaction, it becomes obvious that something went very wrong with Michelle’s big Two 0 announcement. A harbinger of things to come as it turns out.

[Witsec7]

Its been a long time, long before the Duggars made it to TV the first time. I was reading Titus 2 online maybe since 2002 and maybe some others. I knew about QF in 2000 and the the growing dominionist movement was starting to have a presence online. My best buddy from HS was a liberal Presby. minister and he clued me in on Rushdooney and Sproul.

[Undesigned]

Really? I heard it as, 'Don't cry, Josiah,' and I'm got that as a sure sign that he was upset. Also, not to sound rude, but who the hell could Josiah call? His only contacts are his family and the camera crew. He has no friends outside of family.

So I just looked and listened again trying to keep and open mind. Josiah's name is called out by a few of his sisters, Jinger says "Don't Call" and then J-Bob says "...Don't call anybody guys" (he often refers to "guys" and expands the audience to the whole family as soon as he see one person doing something he wants to address) and you can hear the tail end of Josh saying " ...calling?". The expressions seem to match an objection to something vs sympathy. IDK no offense taken with the question of who, but he could have been calling Amy, thinking why not as she is family. He looks excited and is smiling even as he is fleeing.

[marmalade]

When I saw TLC had a special called 14 Kids & Counting."

Yeah, I saw it in a marathon leading up to the Disneyland special, so I got it all like a mega-dose of castor oil. The robotic sameness bothered me almost from the very first scene. The matching clothes were unsettling, especially when the Mother matched Joy, who was 6 at the time. I forgave the Little House mopcap; at least they were reading Little House at that point. Who knows if the latest generation of girls will be allowed to? Who knows if JOY was allowed to? She was just dressing like her older sisters; no insight into what she was really like then. And that saddened me, because I remember when I was 6, I was quite vocal about my taste and even though it was 70's tacky, I was allowed to dress as I pleased and not as the princess my mother may have wanted to project on me.

That's when I knew something was wrong; it went downhill from there. Even before I heard of Bill Gothard, I knew these people were not right. The Smuggar Slam (the Jenesis of his name) confirmed my suspicions. Even though I came in a couple years after the first special, I was comforted in the fact that I wasn't hallucinating and my morbid fascination that led me to watch 3 hours of Duggar specials in succession, was not unfounded.

[Minerva]

So I just looked and listened again trying to keep and open mind. Josiah's name is called out by a few of his sisters, Jinger says "Don't Call" and then J-Bob says "...Don't call anybody guys" (he often refers to "guys" and expands the audience to the whole family as soon as he see one person doing something he wants to address) and you can hear the tail end of Josh saying " ...calling?". The expressions seem to match an objection to something vs sympathy. IDK no offense taken with the question of who, but he could have been calling Amy, thinking why not as she is family. He looks excited and is smiling even as he is fleeing.

I don't think it's possible to know what was said after the "Josiah! Don't-" because that's where they start splicing aggressively. A word that sounds like "call" is heard after "don't" but the editing put it there. The kids' expressions as they watch Josiah do whatever he's doing look, if anything, worried. And if Josiah was running to the phone, why did it take so long for him to get back on camera? He should have turned around and came back after the first "don't". The poses between the spliced scenes were different enough that a fair bit of time must have elapsed between them - more time than if he had just run to the phone and back. He'd have to have been really determined to disobey and call whomever. From what's being said, the calling hypothesis makes the most sense, but from what you see visually and from the time clues, it was probably something else. I think the Josiah stuff was actually him running away upset (grimaces can look like smiles, fake smiles can be maintained while running off camera), and the subject of calling people was brought up for the first time when you hear Josh and JB say it.

[Whydoyouask]

Another moment for me was during one of the specials ("14 kids..." or something) when they were showing an example of school. Michelle was sitting with all the kids around the table (yes, all of them) and teaching from a Wisdom Booklet. I remember her saying, "Today's Law Resource is about bankruptcy. Bankruptcy isn't when you go to the bank..." No shit. And how useful can it possibly be for a bunch of kids to study random topics in law, instead of something real like maths?

I mean, obviously everyone should know what bankruptcy is. But these are kids who haven't even learned the basic-basics of reading, 'riting, and 'rithmetic.

This...

along with Per-pen-DICK-you-lair lol

[FearLyss]

I was not a big viewer of this show, but did catch episodes here and there because my mother watched. After I heard about Josie I thought, "well, surely they will stop this now". When I discovered Mullet was pregnant again I became somewhat fascinated (albeit disgusted). Prior to that, I certainly did not agree with their beliefs or their view of women, but had a sort of "live and let live" attitude. It wasn't until later I dsiscovered all the horrifying details I know now.

[Whydoyouask]

I just watched the link where Michelle and the kids go to 'public school'. WTF is she nursing while reading to the school kids? I totally get that the baby has to eat but honestly, she can't excuse herself for 10 mins to feed the baby? Josiah can't read to the kids? One of the older girls can't take her place? As a parent I would be more than pissed if a guest speaker exhibited that behavior in my kids classroom.

Hey Duggars- every heard of Separation of Church and State?

[Arete]

J&A courtship......

This. Followed by the J&A marriage. I had never heard of the "transfer of authority", and I started raving at the TV as if it could answer back when Pa Keller claimed that the wine in the Bible is actually grape juice. :angry-banghead:

[ADoyle90815]

J&A courtship. I think almost everyone is aware of the abstinence before marriage movement, but I had NEVER before heard of anyone waiting for marriage to KISS. And the chaperones always with them... that whole ball of wax, really. And when it became apparent that the older ones who should be moving out and getting jobs or higher education were still at the compound, being slaves!

That was it for me as well, especially when I realized that the older daughters weren't being married off as they were being kept as slaves to raise the younger children.

[BayLee_10]

I always knew they were fairly weird, but like many others, I was captivated by the kids. The final straws were when the Duggars started following Rick Santorum around and the episode when Jim Bob literally threw Josiah away from him so he could make a shot in that stupid war game they were playing. Josh's pictures of food and making fun of people were pretty sad, as well.

[terranova]

Probably when they had their hmmm...8th kid?

[Lillybee]

When one year old Jordyn was climbing the stiarsr and crawling down the stairs in the TTH and no body noticed except the TLC filming people. It looked like the family really didn't give a damm about Jordyn.

[muffynbear]

I always knew the Duggars were out of their fucking minds. However, the one moment that certified them as cray-cray forever in my book, was when they were wheeling in Jason into the ER and Michelle is fucking smiling ear to ear and posing for the camera next to her injured son who is clearly terrified. That is some sociopathic Ted Bundy shit right there.

[SpeakNow]

TBH, I didn't think having over 10 kids was all that weird when I first started watching the show. (I come from a large family myself...I have over 25 first cousins). What I found odd was the Bankruptcy lesson (why anyone under age 14 would even remotely need to know that I'm not sure), but the final nail in the coffin came from my own research. I went on the Duggar's website to look at the character qualities they taught their children. I then did more research onto this "character education" and came across Gothard. After reading about ATI/IBLP I began to see just what they were teaching their kids. That's when I realized that something was very very wrong.

[Peas n carrots]

Yeah, I saw it in a marathon leading up to the Disneyland special, so I got it all like a mega-dose of castor oil. The robotic sameness bothered me almost from the very first scene. The matching clothes were unsettling, especially when the Mother matched Joy, who was 6 at the time. I forgave the Little House mopcap; at least they were reading Little House at that point. Who knows if the latest generation of girls will be allowed to? Who knows if JOY was allowed to? She was just dressing like her older sisters; no insight into what she was really like then. And that saddened me, because I remember when I was 6, I was quite vocal about my taste and even though it was 70's tacky, I was allowed to dress as I pleased and not as the princess my mother may have wanted to project on me.

That's when I knew something was wrong; it went downhill from there. Even before I heard of Bill Gothard, I knew these people were not right. The Smuggar Slam (the Jenesis of his name) confirmed my suspicions. Even though I came in a couple years after the first special, I was comforted in the fact that I wasn't hallucinating and my morbid fascination that led me to watch 3 hours of Duggar specials in succession, was not unfounded.

My old roommate and I would watch all the mega family specials, and we always found it interesting that TLC would only let it slip part way into the special that the family du jour was evangelical. TLC really had us going with the Arndt family...mom dressed modern (even wore shorts!) and all seemed normal until they started showing the home based Internet church. Weird stuff.

We too were creeped out by Michelle's baby voice....we would mimic her "children are like flowers" line and create riffs on it like "children are like sociopaths". Mind you, my roommate taught 1st grade and did not buy that children were like flowers one bit lol.

[ElphabaGalinda]

I realized the general craziness of the Duggars when they introduced the buddy system to the world, and when I learned they homeschooled all of them at a wide range of ages with the same lessons sometimes and I did a bit of googling and learne with horror what their "education" really consisted of.

I realized their religious craziness during Josh and Anna's courtship.

[FJismyheadship]

I got to see the original 14 kids and counting at school. A teacher had filmed it for our money management class. Right from the start I knew they were wacko. I went home and told my mom all about it and she didnt believe me until we googled it. I remember telling her the kids wore wet suits to go swimming because it was modest and she said "You see more in a wet suit than you do a one piece. whats so modest about thatI? I think she was pregnant with Hannie at this time.

[Kitty]

I haven't watched the show in order and kind of arrived to the party late. I never bothered watching until I came here.

What made me think "these people are crazy" was that they have this huge fucking house, yet only 2 bedrooms for 19 kids. And one of those rooms only has what, 5 beds for 9 people ages 2 to 22. I know they moved in when there were 6 girls and one was in a crib, but still...

[Third]

Wow. Whatever happened poor Josiah. So whatever it was JB hurt his arm to keep him in line?

For me it was 17 K&C and I noticed the mother rarely did anything and the girls did the majority of the work. I think it was Jill was punishing her siblings like a parent and then another scene Jessa did the same thing.

The special of them building the house. The little guy not tucked in by his momma pulled at my heart strings just a little I always tuck in both of mine....he looked so little to already be one of the big boys.

[snarkbillie]

I just watched the link where Michelle and the kids go to 'public school'. WTF is she nursing while reading to the school kids? I totally get that the baby has to eat but honestly, she can't excuse herself for 10 mins to feed the baby? Josiah can't read to the kids? One of the older girls can't take her place? As a parent I would be more than pissed if a guest speaker exhibited that behavior in my kids classroom.

Hey Duggars- every heard of Separation of Church and State?

I'm a little confused here. You would be pissed if a woman fed her baby? What does that have to do with church and state? :cry:

[Third]

I'm a little confused here. You would be pissed if a woman fed her baby? What does that have to do with church and state? :cry:

I doubt Michelle showed any skin. She's got nursing under the cover down to an art form now.

[slickcat79]

The trip to the creation museum

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Start around the 3 minute mark and you can see the whole shebang: Michelle's baby voice, Josiah being Smuggar Jr, and their ADULT children struggling to explain why they believe what they claim to believe. Followed by some great snark from the lovely citizens of Carrboro, NC :) The older kids had absolutely no explanation for why their beliefs were right, except "Because the bible says." Before that I thought they were weird, but I hadn't realized what a serious disservice they were doing to their children's educations and their futures.

[smores]

Josh's wedding. He and I are the same age and I had been in college, basically living with my now-husband for 2 years then. I remember watching it with my mom on a visit home and laughing.

[freejoytoo]

I think the first time I heard about them and looked at their website. I instantly thought they were Christian whackjobs and this thought was encouraged when I saw them on TV. They all had a vacant look in their eyes!