If you keep up with the comings and goings of the Duggar family, then you know that a hot topic of discussion when it comes to these people is their parenting styles.
And that’s because it’s all very, very scandalous.
For years now, people have speculated on the way Jim Bob and Michelle raise their children, and that’s for a lot of reasons.
They just have so many of them, for one — how does one even begin to parent 19 children?
On top of that, it’s always interesting to look into the Duggars’ church and their specific religious beliefs, because it turns out that others with those same beliefs use some pretty concerning methods to care for their kids.
One of those methods, just for an example, is blanket training: you put a baby on a blanket, and if he rolls or crawls off of it, then you scold him (or hit him, in some instances) until he learns to stay put.
Do the Duggars do this? Maybe, maybe not.
We’ve never seen them do it on any of their shows, but many other people who share their belief system do it, so, you know, there’s a decent chance.
But besides all that, there’s been actual evidence that all is not quite right in this family — Josh’s molestation scandal and the way it was dealt with, the way Jana seems to be more of a mother to the younger kids than Michelle is.
And now, thanks to a live video Derick Dillard put on Instagram, there may be even more evidence of abuse.
In the video, Derick is just filming around Jim Bob and Michelle’s house, and he happens to catch Michelle talking to Jennifer, her 10-year-old daughter.
She’s visibly scolding her, and Jennifer is turned away, flinching.
When Michelle notices that Derick is filming, she’s surprised, but then goes into her usual sickly sweet public persona.
It may not sound like a lot, but after watching the clip, numerous Reddit users are convinced that this is proof the Duggars are abusive to their children.
One person said that the clip contained “a lot of red flags,” including “Jenny’s body language, Michelle’s sociopathic switch to sweetness and the finger wagging which is clearly being used as a threat.”
“Omg did you see Jennifer flinch?” another asked before answering that it looked like “she was actually flinching becauseshe thought Michelle was going to hit her.”
One user confirmed that “Jennifer was absolutely flinching,” and “she did it as soon as Michelle made a swift motion with her hands. It looked like she was going to smack Jennifer in that moment.”
Sadly, multiple people commented to say that Michelle’s scolding and Jennifer’s reaction remindd them of their own abusive childhoods.
Of course none of this is definitive proof that she’s hitting her children — none of us could know that, obviously — but it’s troubling that so many people think this is evidence that something sinister is going on in the Duggar home.
Or something more sinister than the stuff we already know about anyway.
But regardless of everything else, someone else pointed out that “nothing about that interaction looked to be a healthy way to reprimand a child.”
And that sounds accurate.
Do you think this is proof that Michelle is abusive?
