On Tuesday, an excited Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar of the TLC reality show 19 Kids and Counting announced that they are expecting their twentieth child. Commentators were less buoyant: After all, Michelle's last pregnancy was a complicated one, leading to the premature delivery of daughter Josie — born three months early in December 2009. Michelle also suffered from preeclampsia, a life-threatening circulation problem. Perhaps unsurprisingly, plenty of parents are questioning Michelle's decision to have yet another child — at age 45, no less. Is it too risky?
Yes. This is bad parenting: "It is irresponsible to knowingly endanger your life and the life of your child when you are already the mother of [19] children, many of whom are still quite, quite young," says Rebecca Jane at FemPop. The Duggars claim to be all about family, but a key caregiver's decision to put herself in danger "undermines the very institution" of family, and "seems to completely discount and devalue the family she already has."
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