18 and counting...

This morning on the Today show, I watched as Meredith Vieira interviewed the oldest son of the show "18 kids and counting". To give you some background, this show , aired on TLC, follows a family (the Duggars) that has 18 kids and mom and dad. The oldest son got married last year and is now expecting his first baby with his wife.

Over the last couple of years, I have watched this family appear on the Today show and talk about their plans and their lives etc. etc. So Michelle and Jim Bob (the parents) think that children are blessings from god and there can never be too many of them. Michelle said that children are like flowers - would you say there are too many flowers? My response to her is that we do not have a responsibility to look after the flowers for 18 years but we do have that responsibility towards our children. The Duggars claim to have a well-oiled machine that has the older kids helping out the younger ones in a "buddy" system. I have seen this happen where the older kids almost lose their childhood because they are, in essence, doing the job of their parents. Michelle and Jim Bob say that they have quality time with their kids - they've got to be joking - I can't even imagine how one goes about knowing each and every one of their 18 kids.

Fawning over families like the Duggars with 18 kids is what has led to Octomom in the first place. The trend seems to be shifting towards having huge families and then hawking them to TV channels which will air each and every moment of their lives. Now that being said, I do like the occasional Jon and Kate + 8 episode on TLC because that family seems so much more real to me compared to the Duggars who seem to be programmed on auto-piliot to be cheerful and without individual personalities (and I know this because I watched one episode out of sheer curiosity and it was one too much for moi). On Jon and Kate, on the other hand, you get drama (sometimes a little more than we bargain for as is the case right now), crankiness, fun and everything that goes along with having 8 kids.

Coming back to the Duggars, it was heartening to note that Joshua and his wife only plan to have 2 or 3 kids. But for the fans of the Duggars, never fear, because by then the son or daughter #2 will be ready to carry on the family tradition and the show will go on.