Michelle Duggar is no stranger to parenting controversies.
In fact, it often seems that every decision made by the mother of 19 becomes a topic of intense scrutiny and heated debate amongst the the internet’s legion of obsessive Duggar fanatics.
This makes sense, of course, as were it not for questionable parenting, the world would have no idea who Michelle is.
Long before the Josh Duggar sex scandals made Michelle and husband Jim Bob the poster children for negligence, many questioned the wisdom of birthing enough children to form two competing baseball teams (with a spare to serve as umpire!).
No one is questioning Michelle and Jim Bob’s love for their children, but we think most parents would agree that it’s logistically impossible to properly care for 19 children.
That is, unless one has plenty of help.
Fortunately for Michelle, she has numerous assistants … and she hasn’t had to shell out a single dime for their services.
Michelle and Jim Bob say they rely on a “buddy system,” in which each of their children is assigned a younger sibling to help care for.
That’s problematic enough on its own, as the Duggar kids are often assigned complex child-rearing tasks at shockingly young ages.
But now, new evidence has suggested that Duggar children as young as 4 or 5 might be performing several hours of household chores each day (without even a small allowance as compensation).
On top of that, fans fear for the health and happiness of Jana Duggar, who has allegedly been discouraged from marrying and starting a family of her own so that she can assist her parents with raising their younger children.
At the center of this controversy, of course, is matriarch Michelle.
And questions about just how much work the 50-year-old does around the Duggar compound came to the forefront in the comments section of a recent Facebook photo:
“Making Chicken and Dumplings with Momma! Love time with my little girls!!” Michelle captioned the photo.
“Does [Michelle Duggar] ever really do anything? She’s always taking pictures and narrating but the kids are doing the work from a young age,” one fan commented on the photo.
“Have you not seen them sweeping and doing hard work at like 2 years old? Have you not seen the little 9-year-olds cooking dinner for 15+people?”
“The show has been on the air for how many seasons, and yet, not once has Michelle cooked a meal,” wrote another.
“It’s always the kids doing it while mom and dad sit around saying ‘I’m hungry where’s dinner’. It’s sad really. Chores are one thing but making a 1-year-old use a vacuum or mop that’s way bigger than them isn’t right.”
Michelle defended her hands-off approach to child-rearing in a recent interview with Parenting magazine.
“Everyone has jurisdictions, or chores, in our house,” Michelle said.
“We all have our areas where we are responsible … They all feel like they are a very important part of life, and that teaches responsibility.”
Fortunately for Michelle, it seems her “jurisdiction” consists primarily of documenting household activities on Facebook.
It’s a tough job, but … actually, no one has to do it,
Watch Counting On online for more on reality TV’s most controversial family.
