The Duggar family removed Jessa Duggar Seewald’s shameless solicitation for fans to send her gift certificates to her favorite stores. The shocking plea was on the Duggar Family Blog yesterday and now it’s gone.
Instead of baby presents for her first child, which is due on November 1, the mother-to-be asked for gift certificates for Walmart and Target, so that she could buy anything she wants. To make it easier for people actually willing to do that, she posted two mailing addresses: one for the U.S. postal service and one for UPS or FedEx deliveries.
The posting was captured for posterity by a notorious Duggar watcher forum and posted on Instagram. Jessa Duggar’s requests posted on the blog appear on the left side of the Instagram upload and commentary is on the right.
But that’s not all on that Duggar Family Blog post that came under fire. Many people were outraged by Jessa’s explanation for why her husband Ben has been doing odd jobs for her father Jim Bob Duggar since the spring of 2014 instead of looking for a real job. Jessa wrote that Ben stopped taking his online college courses last May and he didn’t want to continue with that because of the upcoming birth of their child. Apparently, Ben didn’t feel up to studying online with a new baby in the house, so he will postpone coursework until “next year.”
After being home-schooled by his mother using the same course materials used by the Duggar family, Ben Seewald received a non-accredited Associates Degree in Political Science through distance learning from National Park College, in May 2015. Jessa Duggar has yet to receive a G.E.D., which is a basic requirement for even most minimum-wage jobs.
Ben Seewald began working for Jessa’s father when Jim Bob offered him a job so that he could move in with the family and get to know Jessa better. At the time, Ben lived with his parents near Hot Springs, Arkansas, a four-hour drive from the Duggar home in Tontitown. The teenager frequently made the drive to attend the church services held at the Duggar family home on Sunday mornings, primarily to visit with Jessa, who was 21-years-old at the time.
In an interview with People magazine in August 2014, Jim Bob Duggar said it was his idea for the 18-year-old Ben to move in with the family.
“After Michelle and I were talking about it, we have so many projects to do that we need help for – everything from construction projects to keeping the grass mowed to putting a roof on a building, paperwork and things like that – and we asked him if he would be interested in moving up here so that Jessa and his relationship could be really accelerated. He was all for it and his parents were happy about it.”
Now married and with a baby due in November, Ben is still doing odd jobs for his father-in-law while Jessa curls her hair extensions, poses for selfies in the bathroom mirror, and asks for people to send her gift certificates.
The couple’s means of support is particularly upsetting since Jessa, just prior to her marriage, was filmed by TLC for a segment on the now-canceled series 19 Kids and Counting stating that she wanted to have more than 19 kids. That announcement even shocked her sister Jill and mother Michelle.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91R94S4IzxQ
Even before they were married, Jessa said that she and Ben were already discussing plans to adopt children . Jessa has never addressed the fact that most legitimate adoption agencies require prospective parents to demonstrate financial ability to support children and to provide adequate housing. Since marriage, Jessa and Ben have been living in a small house owned by Jessa’s grandmother Mary Duggar, which only has two bedrooms.
Jessa Duggar repeated the desire to have at least 20 children when she appeared at a one-hour, question-and-answer session at the Southern Women’s Show in Charlotte, North Carolina, on August 29.
The fact that the neither Jessa nor Ben has an adequate means of supporting that many children brought a slew of negative comments on the event’s Facebook page . Although there are still plenty of disparaging remarks still posted, one commenter noticed that over half of the comments had been removed.
“This had 177 comments and 80 of them magically just disappeared. Why are the comments being censored? This is not China!!!”
The overwhelming subject of that comment thread was that Jessa is not a good role model for women and that she and her husband should get real jobs.
One can only wonder what the future will look like for all of those children Jessa wants to have, since Jessa Duggar wants gift certificate handouts now when she has no children to support.
What is your opinion? Please scroll down and leave your comments.
[Intro photo from TLC’s 19 Kids and Counting ]