Before all of the Josh Duggar horror show reached the tabloids back in May, the Duggar family constantly faced criticism for how they chose to raise their youngest kids. Meaning, Michelle and Jim Bob always made such a big deal about God wanting them to keep having babies endlessly, but then Michelle and Jim Bob never really showed any interest in raising the youngest kids. The oldest girls were usually tasked with looking after their younger siblings, and now that Jessa and Jill are married and starting their own families, it seems like poor Jana (often called the “Cinderella” of the Duggar family) is tasked with running the household and managing her many younger siblings. Michelle and Jim Bob travel a lot too and I guess they expect Jana to always be there to raise her siblings.
Anyway, I was thinking about that as I read this new People story. Apparently, Jim Bob and Michelle are just so stressed out and they needed to focus on their marriage, so they went off to a marriage retreat… with Jessa and Ben Seewald. I guess Jana was left at home to look after the kids then.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are taking some time for themselves. The married couple of 31 years are at the Fort Rock Family Camp and Retreat Center in St. Paul, Arkansas.
“We are having a special time at the www.fortrock.org marriage retreat in Saint Paul Arkansas on the edge of the Ozark National Forest!” the duo wrote on the Duggar family’s official Facebook page on Sunday, sharing a photo of themselves smiling. “Beautiful place, beautiful people, beautiful truths!”
Also at the retreat center is their daughter Jessa (Duggar) Seewald, 22, and her husband Ben Seewald, 20, who are expecting their first child on Nov. 1 – the same day as their first wedding anniversary. Jim Bob, 50, and Michelle, 49, also wrote a testimonial for the camp’s official website, raving about the center’s ability to “draw families closer together, promote teamwork, and realize the value of each family member.”
The couple celebrated their 31st wedding anniversary in July, when Jim Bob gifted his wife a ring that features all 19 of their children’s birthstones.
The purpose is to “draw families closer together, promote teamwork, and realize the value of each family member…” You know, all of the family members left at home to be looked after by poor Jana, aka Cinderella Duggar. I also wonder about the subtext of this trip… is Michelle and Jim-Bob’s marriage under strain? I mean, their oldest kid is a child molesting monster, a cheater and a pervert. That’s gotta put a strain on the old marriage. Then again, isn’t Michelle’s marital advice good enough to keep a marriage going? That advice: be sexually available to your husband at all times, no matter what. If that’s all it takes to keep a marriage going, why would they need a marriage retreat? Maybe they just needed some time away to bang somewhere new. Ew. I need some brain bleach.
Photos courtesy of the Duggars’ Facebook.
Look at all of those fake smiles!
My guess is that Jim Bob has told Michelle that the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, and it’s stressful for them to think that the world might find out about his fetishes like they did their son’s.
That, or the daughters needed some retraining, so the parents took them there to do it.
To hell with the Duggar’s.
Go have a look see and hear at Canada’s new Prime Minister.
Justin Trudeau
Thanks ariverruns…here’s a link. I think this dude is going to be great, a chip off the old block:
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-election-2015-voting-results-polls-1.3278537
The Duggars – talk about smiles that never reach your eyes. Those folks are barely hanging on.
There’s an old beach arcade game that features a smiling cartoon jackass with enormous teeth; you use an air gun to shoot balls and knock those suckers back into his mouth.
I just want to smack those smug faces every time I see them. They probably feel so strained from having to actually focus on their children for a change, they just need some alone time now.
Me too. They make me physically ill
I can’t decide which is more disturbing . . . the smug faces . . . the fact that they leave the younger kids with their Cinder-sister . . . or the idea of a ring with 19 friggin’ birthstones.
Is it bad that I want a tsunami to wash this family away?
No, it’s not
Thank you. I hope the Kuntrashians are visiting the Duggars when the tsunami hits.
No, that seems to be the prevailing sentiment about these people. God knows I share that feeling. At this point, People should just re-brand itself The Duggar Weekly. They’re all bottom feeders.
Time to do maintenance brain washing on Jessa. Things change when you have a baby maybe they want to make sure she is still with the program.
That’s kind of gross going to a marriage retreat with your parents. I mean when they have group talks or whatever I am sure sex is discussed. Who wants to hear about your mom giving it up 24/7?
We’ll their sex talks are simple, and she has already told the girls that all you have to do us spread your legs and smile whenever your husband wants his sexy times.
Oh gawd! The visual is too much. Now I need brain bleach.
These threads should read “Duggars (blank blank). Grab your brain bleach.”
Jim Bob is looking more and more like a mole rat as he ages.
Damn Elsie. What have mole rats ever done to you?
Lol, your comment + the fact that you wasted no time in choosing that awesome name…
It is like they are afraid to touch each other. Straight up awkward.
It is like looking at a Jr High Dance picture, the dates awkwardly holding each others hips….yeah..cringe
Jana does do the mothering after Michelle spits the babies out. Despicable. How dare that woman have a tribe of kids then elect groups to watch over each other. No wonder the eldest slipped through the cracks, because these kids are invisible. Other sites suggest Jinger is hooking up with a dude from TN….that leaves Jana, a spinster at 25. Somebody help her out. Even if she ran over to the Sister Wives, at least she’d have more attention than she gets in Arkansas. Poor thing.
Sister wife are just as bad.
*Cant believe I’m about to defend Creepy Cody*
The Sister Wives family is not “just as bad” and let me tell you why: They do not force their children into raising their siblings, they encourage their children of BOTH sexes to get an education and find employment and finally and most importantly they DO NOT force their children into poly-relationships.
At least sister wives can choose to get married and put themselves in that situation or not-this girl has been imprisoned since birth.
I really hope she’s secretly writing a tell all that will be published soon, making her a bazillion dollars so she can escape the cult, live happily ever after and set up a shelter for cult survivors …
Defecting is not an option. Being treated as an honest-to-God human being isn’t either. She doesn’t really have a choice but to let herself be used.
7-11
It’s an option. It’s just not 1 given much thought to as it would be a last resort burning every bridge.
She’s brainwashed and letting herself be used because it’s all she knows and was taught is correct. But we all have doubts and i’m sure she’s had hers. I truly doubt she’s never thought about it, but it’s worst case only. Still, It is as option. Just not likely at this point in time.
Maybe in time she’ll get there and learn to value herself more than those around her do.
What’s more disturbing is that Michelle parented Josh herself. Him being the oldest and the younger kids obviously being younger. Whatever pathology he developed can be blamed on her directly.
Even more disturbing, what kind of parenting did Josh give to whichever younger sibling he was partnered with? Or does the buddy system only apply to the females?
LAK: I find her disturbing on so many levels, even more so than JB. I remember I watched an episode when one of the boys came running down (on camera) to tell her one of the little girls had a bruise on her butt. She asked in that fake condescending voice, how did that happen and he said she fell off the pool table. I’m surprised they left it in, as it was very uncomfortable to watch and hear. Very messed up family.
These people are just whited sepulchres, and should be smited from the face of the earth, or, shuttled off back to whence they came, and never heard from again. Do they really have no shame? Who are they to presume to tell any one else how to live?
“Who are they to presume to tell any one else how to live?” TLC and corporate sponsors have made it so. And so long as there is money to be made, it will continue.
This family is so sick. Diseased from the inside out.
sidetrack – jessa’s hair is gorgeous
Because that’s a feature to be valued so time and effort is put into that.
I thought the same and then took a step back to realise it’s nothing special and very basic.
I guess maybe she hasn’t been putting out enough, so they needed to go to the retreat to get her back into compliance again. This must be at the root of why she reposted that old blog post about what you’re supposed to do for your man sexually. Guilty conscience.
I think it’s the other way around – Jim Bob isn’t as interested now that Michelle is older and infertile.
For these people, the link is sex=kids=money=praise Jeebus! And we know that Michelle gets her husbands attention in return for sex, she has a lot to lose. Look at her, even more crazy-eyed and fake-smiling than usual, flanked by pregnant girls with paternal hands on their hips. Marriage camp doesn’t really sound like a mans idea either, does it? And those sex tips just happened to paint Michelle as sexually available, didn’t they? Hint, hint Jim Bob! And now I have to bleach my brain for going there.
Nah, here’s how it goes. She felt more “womanly” and Mother-of-God -like while pregnant but at least for some of the pregnancies and some time after, she did not have to have Jim-Bob on top of her (I can’t imagine they use any other position at least I don’t want to). Now she doesn’t have that “out”. She’s like a trapped old dray horse. She needs to have one very long, ongoing period. Something tells me Jim-Bob would find that time of the month to be unsavory and unChristian. The only alternative would be coming home with the clap.
Jim Bob and Michelle are the root of all evil here. I know it is easy to complain about their creepy, moocher kids who are such a pain in the ass all the time…but they wouldn’t be so twisted if they hadn’t been brought up by these sick cultists. What’s saddest about it is that they will keep the cult strong and alive by procreating a bunch of cultists who will do the same.
Im sure they were payed to promote the lodge. Those tweets sound like they were lifted right from a brochure
Jana has been elected family caretaker and I doubt she’ll ever marry. I knew a family like that growing up. They weren’t overly religious, but very odd. The younger daughter of the two was deemed “the smart one” and she was given the opportunities, while the older girl (who was equally intelligent) was told she would be the one to care for her parents as they aged. This was told to a girl of 15 mind you. I see the same thing happening here – Jana will continue to raise the little ones until they’re all married off and then she will continue on at home taking care of her parents until the day they die.
And because of their belief’s dictate that a woman must be under the care of a man at all times, even if she is unmarried, spinster, widowed, etc., she’ll end up being the caregiver of someone else’s kids or grandkids after Jim Bob and Michelle are gone.
wouldn’t her anniversary ring be similar to a rainbow theme, with all of those different color birthstones?!? just makes me laugh that she would be wearing something that could possibly promote something that is sooooo evil and wrong! lol!
Oh, Paige! That’s bloody brilliant! Just the fact that she’s inadvertently promoting gay rights makes me do a happy dance!
They went on marriage retreats regularly. Jim Bob had to make sure Michelle never got the idea that she had any voice in the marriage.
I know when me and the hubby like to slip away, there’s nothing more romantic than snuggling near a fake Undertaker’s Parlor.
I was thinking about the Duggars and their courtship stuff. They say that they practice courtship because dating is practice for divorce. And yet, I believe their church teaches that husbands and wives should continue to date after they are married. Jim Bob and Michelle have talked before that they have a weekly “date night.” So what are they practicing for? Logic is not their strong suit.
So Ben and Jessa need a marital tune up already? Snicker.
ew
I think Jimboob wants some of Jessa’s tlc cash and the seawald’s were being reminded to obey their parent and to tithe to duggar daddy dearest.