Michelle Duggar"s Parenting Methods: Is She Messing Up Her Grandkids?

The Duggar children are nothing if not loyal.

Sure, Jinger decided to wear pants in violation of the family dress code, and some of her sisters have followed suit.

And yes, Josiah is rebelling against certain aspects of his father"s teachings, but at the end of the day, these are very minor acts of defiance.

For the most part, Michelle and Jim Bob"s offspring do as their told and dedicate themselves to preserving their family"s proudest traditions.

Unfortunately, as many have pointed out, by following in the footsteps of their elders, Jill, Jessa and company might be doing irreparable harm to their own children.

Here are some of the unsettling trends that fans have noticed in recent years:

1. Mama Michelle

For some, Michelle Duggar is a parenting role model. After all it’s not easy to not only raise 19 children, but to also over-parent them to the brink of insanity,

2. Stuck In Her Ways

Unfortunately, some of Michelle’s favorite techniques haven’t aged well. In fact, some have described them as downright abusive.

3. The Next Generation

At this point, four of Michelle’s daughters are moms themselves, and they beam with pride when discussing how much they’ve learned about parenting from their mother.

4. Passing the Buck

There’s an irony in this, as Michelle is famous for handing off her parenting responsibilities to her eldest children (most commonly poor, put-upon Jana), but we digress.

5. Mom of the Millennium

Though they admit to resenting the amount of responsibility they were often burdened with during childhood, the Duggar kids concur that Michelle is the world’s greatest mom … Of course, that opinion doesn’t mean much coming from Josh.

6. Mixed Results

Now that they’re able to implement the tips and tricks they learned from Michelle, some of the Duggar kids are finding that their mom’s methods might belong in the past …

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Jill Duggar Accused of Abusive Parenting Methods

Another day, another Jill Duggar parenting controversy.

If you follow Jill on social media, you know that she’s constantly being critcized for the way she raises her two sons.

Sometimes, the concerns are justified, such as when Jill had her 2-year-old son walk for over an hour alongside a busy highway to get to a Chick-Fil-A location.

On other occasions, it seems as though fans are simply making Jill the target of the anger they feel toward the entire Duggar clan.

See the time that Jill put a tortilla on her son’s head to block him from the sun as an example.

We’ll leave it up to you to determine which category the latest controversy falls into.

Jill posted the photo below on her Instagram page over the weekend.

It may seem innocent enough, and well … it probably is.

But some of Jill’s followers are outraged by what they feel is an endorsement of a much-maligned disciplinary technique.

In the past, the Duggars have expressed their belief in “blanket training,” a practice in which children as young as 6 months old are seated on a blanket and told not to move.

The childcare “experts” who originated blanket training tell parents that they should strike their child with an object if he or she moves from the blanket.

It may be a stretch, but some fans think this photo is Jill’s way of sending the message to like-minded parents that despite the ongoing controversy, she still practices blanket training in her home.

“They were raised to start hitting your baby at 6 months if they go off the blanket they actually say spanking or throwing something at them!” commented one of Jill’s followers.

“Throw something at your 6 month of baby and they also raise their children to be respectful by beating them.”

Other fans believe (quite reasonably) that there’s no reason to believe this photo is an endorsement of any single parenting technique or style.

“That’s not punishment,” countered one such follower. “Some babies like being wrapped up.”

Obviously, this seems like a case of Jill’s photos being nit-picked to death, but it’s a reminder that she comes from a family in which behaviors that would be considered abusive by most parents are still practiced every day.

Watch Counting On online for more from reality TV’s most controversial family.

View Slideshow: Jill Duggar Baby Photos

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Jill and Derick Dillard: Under Fire Again For These Parenting Methods

Jill Duggar and Derick Dillard are no stranger to fans criticizing their parenting, and a new interview has re-opened that can of worms.

One thing that the couple and their critics can agree on:

Jill’s comment that they are not perfect parents.

Critics interpret that statement more harshly, however, while Mrs. Dillard is going for modesty in an interview she recently gave with TLC.

As the second oldest daughter (behind only maligned Cinderella Duggar) in a family of 19 kids, Jill has plenty of experience with kids.

Still, “it’s totally different when it’s your own kid.”

So what does she do? In an effort to improve, she does what any regular folks do, and that’s ask the opinions of other moms in her life.

“We’re far from mastering any skill of parenting,” Jill says. “But we do pick up on little tips here and there from Derick’s mom, my mom.”

“We’re always asking questions of other people.”

That’s perfectly normal, but where the interview became controversial was when Der discussed a new parenting challenge they face.

“We know that human nature is still there because he’s very manipulative,” Derick says of Israel, who is now two years old. 

“He’ll say, ‘I love you, Papi,’ like if he’s really trying to get something to butter you up right before he asks for something.”

Fans quickly jumped on Der for … basically criticizing his son for being two, and focusing on training vs. nurturing the kid.

Reads a post on The Duggar Family: Life Is Not All Pickles and Hairspray Facebook page, a frequent critic of the crew:

“You can’t be human without human nature.”

“You can not blanket train or beat it out of him. That will only create a human being with mental health issues. Yes, your child is manipulating you.”

But, the commenter points out, “[it’s] what kids do to survive. Kids learn to manipulate as a way to get their needs met and for attention.”

“Izzy’s human nature is here to stay.”

Another fan weighed in harshly as well: “Their religious zeal leads them to believe that children are just little adults with no moral training.”

“That’s very medieval,” the fan said, adding that “the Dillards seem to be more about training Izzy and less about delighting in him.”

Are Jill and Derick really doing that though? Do the Duggars treat kids as little adults “as opposed to human beings who are not developed” yet?

The controversial practice of “Blanket Training,” referenced by one of the commenters above, has been linked to the Duggars before.

Blanket training, as advocated by Jill’s mom Michelle Duggar, involves placing a baby/child on a blanket on the floor and hitting him.

In order to train him or her to obey, that is.

While there is no evidence that Jill or Derick personally do this, they were criticized over their use of a blanket in the 2015 photo above.

“More and more I have begun to question the judgment skills of Jill and Derick,” wrote on the Pickles and Hairspray Facebook page.

“What is going on in their heads to think posting two photos of a bound up toddler screaming his head off is appropriate?”

“This isn’t even swaddling a newborn,” the site lamented. “Izzy looks to be about 6 or 7 months here. What are they thinking?”

Jill and Derick have been criticized in the past for exposing their son to dangerous mission work in El Salvador, right now especially.

With Jill pregnant with their second child, her ability to care for Israel – not to mention the risks of Zika – have heightened fan concerns.

In an April 17 blog post, Jill revealed that her first-born recently battled a fever, and this one was much worse than previously thought.

“Israel is back to normal after a somewhat scary five days of him running a fever and not feeling well,” she wrote on her blog.

Much ado about nothing? Possibly.

View Slideshow: 15 Disturbing Things BANNED By the Duggar Family

Duggar fans could certainly stand to take a chill pill with some of this stuff. Let the people live, especially if you claim to be fans of theirs.

They’re humans too, after all.

Still, some of the points are valid and when it comes to what religion the Duggars follow and it impacts the ways they raise their kids.

Criticism invariably follows.

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