Like it or not, the new season of Counting On premieres on February 26th.
Unlike her sister Jill or Jill"s husband Derick Dillard, Jessa Seewald will be back on the show with her very young sons, Spurgeon and Henry.
The show isn"t even out yet, and fans are once again mortified by Jessa"s parenting. Is she endangering her children?
No one in their right mind looks to the Duggars as any sort of bastion of good parenting advice — or good advice in general.
But people have seen Jessa Duggar Seewald with a particularly critical eye.
Sometimes, Jessa gets mom-shamed unfairly. It happens. People jump to conclusions or just don"t know proper parenting.
But this isn"t just haters — there are genuine fans of the Duggars and of Jessa herself who are worried about the well-being of her children.
And a photo that she recently shared on Instagram — meant to be "cute" — isn"t exactly reassuring people who wonder if she has what it takes to be a good parent.
Take a look.
First of all, Henry Wilberforce Seewald is an adorable little baby. That much, no one is questioning.
But do you notice what he has in his mouth?
That is butt paste — which, as ridiculous and perhaps gross as it sounds, is designed to be applied topically to treat diaper rash (and, as it turns out, can also address other skin conditions such as psoriasis).
Henry, like any little one-year-old, is eager to put things in his mouth.
Part of that is to learn more about his world — which is why babies put things in their mouths. Part of it is because he is likely teething.
Fans and followers of Jessa were quick to point out the danger, writing in the comments:
"Why are you allowing him to do this?"
Not just allowing — she photographed him while he was doing it.
"Ingestion of that stuff will cause violent vomiting — I know from firsthand experience."
It"s not clear if this happened to this commenter or to a baby in their care. Either way, it sounds really unpleasant.
"I didn"t let my babies chew on tubes of diaper rash cream or butt paste. There is absolutely no excuse to let him. I"m sure he has toys he can chew on."
Though other fans rushed to Jessa"s defense, she quickly found herself the subject of criticisms for a different parenting fail altogether.
Once again, as you"ll see in the video below, it involves Jessa, Instagram, and Henry.
This time, Spurgeon is involved.
Though fans have pointed out that Jessa might not be great at homeschooling her kids, she"s teaching Spurgeon and he has a book open.
A wholesome video above reproach, right?
Except that it doesn"t take an eagle-eyed viewer to notice Henry in the background, playing with the fireplace grate.
As cute as it is to see little Spurgeon exclaim "amazing!" whenever she turns the page, a lot of people were worried about Henry.
For one thing, children shouldn"t associate the fireplace with a place to play. At all.
The bigger issue, however, is that Henry could easily fall and injure his fragile little baby head on the hearth.
Jessa has Spurgeon in her lap, and there"s simply no way that she could dive across the room in time to heroically save her baby mid-fall.
Jim Bob and Michelle had a small army of children, but it looks like Jessa is a little overwhelmed by just two.
See for yourself and decide if fans are being overly harsh to Jessa.
