Duggar Family ‘Took Advantage Of’ Free Stuff, Limits On Freebies ‘Probably Because Of Us’ Says Daughter
The Duggar family took full advantage of available free offers, according to daughter Jessa Seewald. She goes on to opine that “modern day” policies limiting how many kids per adult can eat for free in a restaurant probably were influenced by her family. In her latest blog post, one of the two married Duggar daughters for whom the spin-off show, Jill and Jessa: Counting On is named lists 101 things she thanks her father for. A few items on the list will raise the eyebrows of some viewers, but Jessa’s interpretation of family nights out will particularly call to those who call the family “grifters” and accuse them of taking more than their share of free offers.
Sunday is Father’s Day, and Jessa, Jim Bob Duggar’s fifth child, celebrated a little early with a blog post on the website she shares with her husband, Ben Seewald. Many items in the post are typical things any child might thank her father for.
- for being patient and teaching me consistently to do what’s right
- for unconditional love
However, the Duggar family isn’t exactly typical, and some of the items are rather unique to them.
- for learners’-permit tests in a 15-passenger van!
Since there were more than a dozen kids in the Duggar family by the time Jessa was 10-years-old, there’s no question that her parents had to divide up their attention a little differently than in some households. However, one thing she’s thankful for is that her father was willing to list all those names when he prayed.
- for praying for all of us kids by name
- for the special times when we went out to eat (yes, we most definitely took advantage of kids-eat-free, the modern day policies of “2 children per paying adult” probably happened because of us??)
A lot of the Duggar family’s fiercest detractors say that the family does too much of this — it has been a theme, especially since the show was yanked off the air. Back in September, for instance, when Krispy Kreme offered a free box of donuts to any customer who showed up dressed like a pirate, Jill Dillard (the other married Duggar daughter) posted proudly on Instagram about visiting a store with several siblings and collecting 14 boxes of free donuts.
Why does each kid need their own box of donuts? #greedy
…that was taking advantage of the situation…
In addition to general criticism of the whole Duggar family, Jessa has specifically taken some flak for being too happy about free gifts, when she bragged online about someone paying for her coffee in a drive-thru, but didn’t pass it on to the car behind her.
Jessa’s right about one thing — most restaurants probably aren’t used to as many as a dozen children eating for free, accompanied by only two parents purchasing adult meals. It’s not the only time the family has been criticized for taking advantage of a discount that was probably dreamed up with smaller families in mind, either. Last July, they went to High Rise, an indoor trampoline park, timing their visit for Family Night — a time when a whole family can play for $35, compared to $10-20 per person the rest of the time. For a family of four, this could be a savings of a few dollars per person. For 20 Duggars, it means paying less than $2 per person.
Jessa also thanks her dad, in the post, for birthday lunches in restaurants — with 19 kids, if the Duggar family dined out for every birthday, that’s a lot of free kid’s plates.
[Image via Duggar Family Facebook]
