<p>Sarcasm detector not working??</p>
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Dont know who that is directed at, barrons. I’ve not said anything negative about the Duggars. Cant say the same for you when it comes to students trying daring stunts and getting killed (who you apparently thought deserved what they got), or your general opinion of southerners and southern schools. What did you call southerners-- redneck yahoos??</p>
<p>*** my sarcasm detector is fine-- yours seems to be kaput.</p>
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<p>They actually strike me as having more outdoor fun time than the average suburban overscheduled kid. They have land to run around on, grow a garden, and learn practical life skills that many kids just aren’t exposed to. I don’t think it hurts them to be responsible for household chores. It’s old-fashioned perhaps but I think a lot of modern kids would be better off getting off the xbox and being a little less pampered.</p>
<p>jym626–every post you have in this thread was negative on the D’s. Words fail me.(sarcasm). Me using a liberal icon like Hillary and her goofy quote–SARCASM</p>
<p>Sorry still not feeling the pity for stupid kids doing stupid things and dying from it.</p>
<p>I kinda like the south–live part-time in Lynchburg, VA so don’t know about the other one. I do like to kid a bit you know.</p>
<p>Then you misread, barrons. Yes, words fail me about a 19th pregnancy. Yup. For sure, But the other comments have been responses to your comments, not “hatred” (your word) toward the family. Please don’t put words in my mouth. I don’t “hate” anyone. In all honesty, I really don’t care one way or the other. I have an opinion about their choices, but I don’t have any feeling about them one way or the other.</p>
<p>And perhaps your memory is in need of a little tweaking- you said some unbelievably awful things about southerners and students at certain southern schools. Made fun of the students, their clothes, their football teams their academics, you name it. Really ugly stuff. It wasnt kidding. It was mean spirited. I like to kid around as much as the next person. But that (the insults to the southern schools) wasnt “kidding”. Neither was the awful stuff about the student at Penn who fell off a wall and some other unfortunate student (I forget the specifics) who made a bad decision and faced his mortality. Not funny. Not one bit. DONT reopen that conversation. Just pointing out that it was NOT funny. It was MEAN and insensitive. So now suddenly you are all defensive of a bunch of cloistered baby factory TV media hog hypocrites? Puleeze. ( and yes- I DID call them as I see them here… ok-- I’ll own that one 
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<p>** And before you call me out on this, let me clarify. I really dont give a hoot one way or the other about the Duggars, but I do not personally agree with their family choice about religion, education, treatment of their daughters, constant dropping of kids or the milking of the media for their source of income while refusing to allow tv in the house. I dont care if they dislike TV. Then dont sell your soul to it. That IS hypocritical. That is all.</p>
<p>I read their website-Michelle says that her children teach her younger children, she never talks about herself teaching the younger ones, just sitting with the older teens.</p>
<p>Her children do the chorea with the older teaching and working with the younger ones, no where does she mention her involvement</p>
<p>Her kids cooks the meals, her kids do the cleaning up</p>
<p>To claim that she spends more time with her kids than the average parents, does she even have a clue how other people live></p>
<p>Most parents I know manage more than a chat a week with each kid to “check in”. She works at home, and runs in and out of her office, while her older kids are teaching the younger ones, so who is really doing the homeschooling?</p>
<p>What bothers me is that they misrepresent how they live- misrepresent who trains the children, who teachs them, they don’t parent, they train, those kids don’t have options in life- from clothes, to music, to food, to free time to art</p>
<p>If you have 19 children, one will always step out of the box- with music, dance, hair, its natural and human- expressing ones self if some fashion or another</p>
<p>THose kids are cookie cutter, and that is unnatural. You look at any familiy and there are actual personallities there, I have not seen any semblence of indiviuality, and to me that is bizarre.</p>
<p>I have never seen the Duggars tending a garden. In fact, they don’t seem to eat fresh fruits and vegetables, and live on a steady diet of overprocessed, chemical laden food. It would be GREAT if the Duggars had a garden, or some chickens or goats, so that they were a bit more environmentally friendly in their food consumption. But I have seen their grocery shopping and eating, and it is pretty horrific. Gallons of fake grape-ade? Tater tot casserole? Cream of mushroom soup in everything? Ick (and unhealthy—surprising that none of the kids are fat).</p>
<p>And there is a difference between doing kids doing household chores, babysitting younger siblings, helping with dinner and actually** raising ** siblings. The older girls do ALL the cooking, cleaning, laundry, education and childcare (with the exception of Ma’s nursing buddy, attached 24/7). Those aren’t normal family chores, but slave labor (or certainly unpaid childcare). I don’t think it is right, and feel free to comment on it, because the family has chosen to put their family in the limelight for financial gain.</p>
<p>Just to set the record straight, that was the dad who I quoted as officed in the home and running in and out. </p>
<p>Do you really believe Michelle does nothing all day? She is the director, the organizer, the one who makes the whole thing work. She is not off nursing the baby alone somewhere. She is in the middle of everything all the time, which means she is interacting with her children constantly.</p>
<p>If you read the book, you will find that the older ones teaching the younger ones is not the whole story. She teaches them to read. Once they are readers their “buddies” start supervising more of their education. They also use a curriculum on computers for the older grades (3-12). In the afternoon everyone 5 and up sits down at the dining table and they work through a booklet on character qualities. The book uses thriftiness as the example and explains how they would study that for a month or so, defining it, talking about it and how it applies to their family. They study science, history, law, and medicine resources in what she calls the bus stop method. As it gets more detailed, the younger children drop off to do age appropriate activities related to the subject.</p>
<p>I hate to go on and on but it seems to me that people are writing things about this family that are not true. I see no evidence that the girls are oppressed. The boys all have jobs to do as well. They start learning to drive by mowing with the riding lawn mower, both sexes. Both learn to drive and also learn to do basic mechanical things with cars. Both sexes have cleaning chores. Both sexes love to play paintball, broomball, etc. I think most of the weirdness that people associate with them is simply not true.</p>
<p>Not my lifestyle but as I said before, they go to great lengths to say “For us…”, “In our family…”, “We believe…”. They are not judging others, just saying what they do and why.</p>
<p>zoedoggie-
I was reading their website-- thats where I read that in fact they are both licensed real estate agents and that mom Duggar had an office in the home. And they have certainly maximized access to the media
Do they allow radio or magazines in the home? It didn’t say anywhere that I could find. I do find it unusual that they were apparently able to get their home declared a church and therefore not have to pay taxes. Thats a sweet deal if you can get it.</p>
<p>Indeed. Media from all over the world have been to and inside their home. One of the weekly episodes focused on a photo shoot with People magazine. In addition, the Today show has done several live shots (early morning) in the home.</p>
<p>I was just looking at the Duggars website and noticed an ad on the right side of the Media page for a DVD set from the Discovery channel Store called “The Human Body- pushing the limits”… Great choice of advertising. Wonder if it was intentional. <a href=“http://health.discovery.com/tv/duggars/duggars.html[/url]”>http://health.discovery.com/tv/duggars/duggars.html</a></p>
<p>Can someone explain how the tax exempt status works? Is just their house tax exempt, or do they pay no taxes whatsoever on all the earnings from all the $$ they get from their tv show, etc. Do they get to buy everything for the house/kids/“minister” (aka dad) with tax exempt status?</p>
<p>Not only do they pay no taxes but their house is an incorporated city and they just got $3,000,000 in stimulus funding to build a “transportation demonstration project” on their land which will really be a place for the kids to race ATVs.</p>
<p>Are you saying kids at certain southern schools don’t overdress for football games?</p>
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Please tell me you are kidding. Can you say GOVERNMENT RIPOFF?!?!?!?!!</p>
<p>Football game attire is usually a tanktop, flipflops and shorts. Where you are its earmuffs, parkas and a flask of whiskey.</p>
<p>I think Barrons is kidding, jym.</p>
<p>I hope so. that sarcasm meter seems to be shorting out a lot these days…</p>
<p>Actually, do the Duggar kids have much time for any fun, in between caretaking their siblings and doing the chores?</p>
<p>And kid # 19. Gives new meaning to Jim Bob’s quiverfull.</p>
<p>Sorry, I am not a Duggar fan. I am happy that they have a large family, I just wish they could have opened their love and their homes to God’s unwanted children instead of bringing nearly 20 more into this world. I personally believe that if they truly wanted to please God, then they should have taken his unloved, uncared for, abused, neglected, etc orphans into their home. This world is overpopulated as it is and we are killing what their God gave us by bringing masses of children into the world. Sorry, but it’s the truth.</p>
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<p>They are likely not studying chemistry and physics. Yes, those subjects are required for public schools. I don’t know if they are required in accredited private high schools. Home schools are unaccredited private schools and only have to teach what is required by their state. </p>
<p>The Duggars have goals for their children, the same as everyone here does. I think most here would say that the kids should be allowed to make their own goals and follow them, but I don’t think you really believe that. If one of our kids said his goal was to graduate h.s. and start a rock band and that therefore he was going to take the minimum required courses to graduate, I think we’d tell him that maybe he will end up starting a rock band, but for now, he’s going to sign up for Algebra 2, like it or not.</p>
<p>So, I assume the Duggars’ goal for their children is to learn a trade and be self-employed. For their daughters, their goal is for them to be stay-at-home moms (an honorable profession which many women on this forum have pursued), maybe with something entrepeneurial they can do to bring in some income. If those are their goals for their children and what they think is best for them, they will provide opportunities to learn what is necessary to accomplish that.</p>
<p>I could be wrong, but I am guessing if one of the daughters said she wanted to keep going in sciences because she has an interest in that and might want to do something with it at some point, her parents would provide the means for her to do that. Except in very rural areas, many (maybe most) h.s. aged homeschooled students take outside classes in higher sciences and higher math. It’s very available. </p>
<p>As for being self-taught being a negative, I disagree. Wasn’t Abraham Lincoln largely self-taught? George Washington only received an elementary school education and was largely self-taught after that. At 16, his education was completed and he began work as a surveyor. Nevertheless, he was a very smart and successful man (even before he was president).</p>
<p>My son said that in college when he had classes taught by grad assistants whose accents were so thick that he couldn’t understand them, he was grateful that he had learned how to teach himself. Some of his classmates struggled because they had always been spoon fed their education.</p>
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<p>Why do you say that the Duggar kids have no such opportunity, MommaJ? Are public school textbooks the epitomy of a good education? If one has public school textbooks, even in a weak school system, which presumably has overcrowded classrooms and bad or overworked teachers, then he can get a good education. However, a kid being educated at home with an older sibling helping and tutoring him can’t get a good education because he is using Christian textbooks?</p>
<p>If a person is employed as a plumber or a truck driver or a pastor or stays home to raise her kids, is that wasted human potential? Are their lives of less value to society than those of a restauranteur, an engineer, or an i-banker? Do we criticize parents here who support their kids’ pursuit of careers which will not in some way directly benefit society?</p>
<p>At Auburn, Uva (declining) and Old Miss at least football game attire for students is ties and jackets for the guys and sundresses for the women. Many find that a bit much.</p>
<p>Did they have motorized cars when you attended those games???</p>