INQUISITR.COM / Entertainment

Police: Duggars Used A Rod To Spank Their Kids

By Dustin Wicksell
Published on: 11:23 PST, May 28, 2015

A 2006 police report detailing Josh Duggar’s molestation of his sisters has caused a media firestorm, yet the document has also revealed another detail that the Duggar family has yet to address: namely, the assertion by one of their children that Jim Bob and Michelle use a rod to spank them.

The allegations surfaced in the police report, which was released in a redacted form last week by In Touch Weekly. The report includes a summary of a conversation which occurred between an investigator and one of the Duggar children, who remains unnamed.

“Inv. Taylor asked [redacted] about getting spanked. [redacted] said that when [redacted] is bad that [redacted] mother and dad spank [redacted]. Inv. Taylor asked what they use to spank. [redacted] said they have a rod. Inv. Taylor asked if they do this to all the kids and [redacted] said yes. Inv. Taylor asked if they leave any bruising [redacted] said no.”

Though the Duggars have been vocal about the way they raise their children in the past, they have rarely, if ever, spoken out about the use of corporal punishment. Michelle Duggar was asked about it directly by a fan in 2010, and she responded evasively through her TLC blog. According to Gawker, the Duggar Family Blog has noted that Michelle Duggar practices “blanket training” with her toddlers, a method articulated in To Train Up a Child by Michael and Debi Pearl.

Blanket training involves corporal punishment, and requires parents to place their baby on a blanket, “flicking” or hitting it with a “flexible object” each time it tries to crawl off. Michelle Duggar admitted to using this type of training method on the Duggar Family Blog in 2011, though she did not address the physical aspect of the practice.

“It’s not waiting until they do something wrong to correct them, but actually taking moments to train them,” the Duggar matriarch asserted. “What they’re learning is self-control….They’re learning to obey Mommy’s voice.”

Since the police report was made public, advertisers have fled the Duggar’s program, 19 Kids And Counting, and Hulu has pulled the show as well, as the Inquisitr previously reported. No comment has yet been issued by the Duggar family regarding the allegations that their children were spanked with a rod.

[Photo by Brendan Hoffman / Getty Images]

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