'19 Kids and Counting' Gets Stranger, Sadder

[redbeardiam]

http://news.yahoo.com/19-kids-counting-g...42696.html
From the commentary/article:

Quote:We're not saying the miscarriage shouldn't be dealt with or that the hope leading to fallout shouldn't be shown, but it probably shouldn't factor into the season as some kind of narrative surprise. We like to be horrified by 19 Kids and Counting, but not like that. The show is a fun jaw-dropper when a courting ritual begins (oh, god it's creepy) or they visit another Quiverfull family (also creepy, also a potential for courting), but an eventual miscarriage treated something like a suspense thriller feels like a vast overstep on the producers' part. Something so serious deserves proper treatment, a well-considered setting and context, and simply slyly mixing it in with the typical meat of the series, with all its 4-H freakshow vibe, is certainly not anything close to that.

[Fishsticks]

Yeah, I remember watching the trailer for this new season. You get a knot in the stomach watching the family getting excited about the coming baby and picking out the name. You know what's going to happen but you can't stop it. I really wonder about TLC, because they have some really nice shows (like "What Not to Wear"-the only fashion show I can bear watching) and then exploitive shows like "Toddlers and Tiaras".

[beth]

I've really come to hate TLC in the US. It's almost become National Enquirer-esque. So lemme go ahead and sound as uncaring as possible. No, I don't want to watch a show about your addictions, whether it be eating the couch or having 47 kids on it. I don't want to see you eat 50,000 calories a day. I would like to see the foreign travel shows they show on TLC in Asian countries. They don't exploit people with real problems for ratings. They're actually interesting, and give me ideas of where I want to go next.

[Just Exhaled]

This is so wrong and the weirdness abounds:

* What kind of person agrees to a reality show? (And then agrees to exploit their children as well.)

* I agree that it is their right to have as many children as they choose, but there is something wrong with people who collect children like Pez dispensers or Precious Moments figurines. I just really believe there are unresolved issues at play.

* Seems they are in a catch 22. Can't provide for the children without exploiting the children. Can't stop being "a little off" so as to hold on to the cash cow.

Makes me go

[Natalie]

They said in one show that this is their "ministry", which goes to show what crazy things people will do in the name of religion.

Although I do agree that it's a money thing. They got a taste of having it now and it'd be hard to let it go, I imagine.

[notdrinkingthekoolaid]

I can't watch that show. Even on a good day it makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and lock myself in a closet.

[Phatchick]

(02-22-2012 03:13 PM)notdrinkingthekoolaid Wrote:  I can't watch that show. Even on a good day it makes me want to curl up in the fetal position and lock myself in a closet.

Same here. It's like a televised trainwreck.

[Lady Julian]

(02-22-2012 10:58 AM)Natalie Wrote:  They said in one show that this is their "ministry", which goes to show what crazy things people will do in the name of religion.

Awful attitude, that: "I can do ministry by appearing on a television screen!" Have they not considered that this makes them the reality show version of a televangelist?

Unfortunately, this is an all-too-common belief among fundies, and various conservatives: the belief that we can somehow "do ministry" by showing up and talking at people, or even doing stuff sometimes. Ministry has nothing to do with talking or even with doing things; it's about relationship-building.

I was "in ministry" (awful phrase) teaching for a while, and I remember thinking that I could change my students by being super-intellectual and insightful about literature and the Bible. Boy, I was wrong. I learned instead to connect with people. They respect your care for them much, much more than they respect you talking about them in front of a class.

Or on a TV.

[P D]

What is really wrong is when a family practices faith in God with regard to childbearing (which is good, btw) but then fails to practice breastfeeding on demand and the family bed so that ovulation is suppressed while nursing (15 months on average). If they would do this, they would have children spaced every two years instead of every ten months.

God planned for ovulation to stop during nursing, but they don't want to practice that aspect of faith in God. So they overwork the physical health and well-being of the mother and pop out a baby every 10 months and think they are practicing God's will when in reality they are flaunting God's will.

The mom needs to hold the baby, breastfeed the baby, practice the family bed, and avoid the use of pacifiers and other food so that biology can do what God intended - space her children apart every two years.

[WifeofBill]

PD, not defending the Duggars, but nursing doesn't always stop ovulation. I've exclusively nursed all three of my kids and started ovulating about 12 weeks after delivery with all 3. My kids have co-slept, no bottles, etc., yet if I didn't use birth control methods I would have kids every 10 months.