la petite moi, you cannot argue that the children are, indeed, largely raising each other under the supervision of the parents. I just think that this is a responsibility that children should not have, since they are CHILDREN and not PARENTS, and the fact that the parents more or less force it upon them is absurd. It's one thing to babysit your siblings once in a while, and help out with them as needed, but the older children in the family are doing most of the caretaking of the younger children. I just think that the parents have a responsibility to give individual attention to each and every one of their children, which is impossible when you have 17 children under the age of 19.
Yes, they have fun "playdates" with other ridiculously large families, but I'd bet money that most of those kids are socially stunted and lack any close non-family contacts.
from
www.m-w.com
Quote:
par·ent
Pronunciation: 'per-&nt
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French, from Latin parent-, parens; akin to Latin parere to give birth to
1 a : one that begets or brings forth offspring b : a person who brings up and cares for another
2 a : an animal or plant that is regarded in relation to its offspring b : the material or source from which something is derived c : a group from which another arises and to which it usually remains subsidiary
|
The Duggars are parents in the sense that they procreated and created 17 offspring, but they are not properly fulfilling their role as parents when it comes to actually CARING FOR their children. You just can't do that with 17 kids.
/rant