Jessa Duggar Seewald’s parenting is one again being brought into question.
Followers have seen photos of filth in her home before, but sometimes what looks like clutter can become a genuine safety hazard. Especially when you have two very small children.
Is Jessa endangering little Henry?
Stained sheets (still on the bed), dust bunnies, and inescapable clothing piles aren’t an ideal way to keep one’s home.
But, to hear critics tell it, poor housekeeping is the least of Jessa Duggar’s alleged ineptitudes.
Jessa has been slammed for not homeschooling her kids correctly after it seemed that Spurgeon (who’s only a toddler) had misidentified some shapes and wasn’t exactly a master of spelling.
Some would question whether there’s any “correct” way to homeschool your kids, but any reasonable person can say that a kid not spelling things correctly as a toddler is not the same thing as having atrocious spelling when they’re actually old enough to go to school.
This, however, is a matter of real safety for her young baby.
In a recent post, Jessa shared a (sped up) video of little Henry Wilberforce Seewald gleefully climbing up a small plastic slide and then sliding back down it.
On its own, it looks cute. He’s having a good time unwittingly reenacting the myth of Sisyphus in a gleeful modern adaptation.
Jessa’s caption reads:
“Henry discovered a new game last night. (And daddy came to aid by moving hard objects from the fall zone and padding the area with pillows and blankets.”
For some parts of the video, Ben Seewald can be seen doing just that … sort of clumsily. We even see him spot Henry a couple of times.
For the most part, though, Henry seems to be on his own. And fans have to ask why there were “hard objects” surrounding his play area to begin with.
And why his mother let him play alone instead of being right by his side to catch him if he should fall.
Jessa Seewald only captioned this one “a boy and his car,” but you don’t need captions to notice potential dangers.
As fans and critics alike were quick to point out, the Seewald’s have an unprotected fireplace just inches from where Henry is playing.
Babies fall all of the time, folks.
If you’re wondering if there’s a difference between hitting your head on wood and hitting it on solid stone, there is.
Furthermore, the risk of hitting a soft baby head on the edge of stone like that? However unlikely, no parent wants to take that chance.
Plenty of parents would sensibly place a protective border such as decorative pillows around it. Most would just be right by him as he plays beside it.
There’s more to criticisms of Jessa Duggar’s parenting than accusations that she lets her baby play in unsafe surroundings.
Recentlys, fans tore Jessa a new one after she let Henry play with and even chew on a tube of “butt paste.”
The colorfully named product is supposed to be a balm for diaper rash (it’s also used to treat a variety of skin conditions, though it takes a certain degree of stoicism to rub “butt paste” on one’s elbow).
If ingested, it could give precious baby Henry Wilberforce Seewald some very unpleasant symptoms.
There are a bajillion possible chew toys in this world. Maybe Jessa could find some that are actually safe.
Are all of these criticisms warranted or are these just frustrations expressed by critics who really dislike the Duggar family?
The fact of the matter is that mom-shaming is rampant on the internet, and Jessa’s been mom-shamed over some things that aren’t actually bad.
Safety issues, however, are important. That’s not a personal choice, that’s your baby’s life and their entire future.
Doesn’t little Henry deserve a safe place to play, where no “hard objects” need to be removed?
And isn’t it fair to suggest that Jessa shouldn’t wait for Ben to come home before she makes her son’s play area safe?
Fans think so.
