August 2
Little Rock, Arkansas - An Arkansas couple had a baby daughter today - their 17th child and seventh girl.

And the pair say they're still not ready to give it a rest.

Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar said that their daughter, Jennifer Danielle, was born at 10:01 a.m.

Michelle, who's been pregnant for 126 months - or 10.5 years - of her life, said the couple would like to have more girls, since they love the ruffles and lace.

All the children - whose names start with the letter J - are taught at home.

The oldest is 19 and the youngest, before Jennifer, is almost two years old.

Among the "fun facts" listed about the Duggars is that a baby has been born in every month except June.
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You know, some people really need to get educated. If that mother hasn't let her body rest and long enough between children, she is endangering their health as well as hers.

I loved being pregnant with my daughter,but i just can,t imagine being in that condition every single day of my entire adult life! I think the hormones would drive me crazy before the kids would have a chance to !And like you say glorybebe thats just not healthy for mom or the babies!

Well, I grew up around near Bountiful, so you learn a lot about things by listening.

wow..
i only want 1 or 2 kids
not 17

I applaud the parents for educating the kids at home. The couple has taken on a huge burden by raising so many kids and I only hope that they are responsible enough to raise and teach their litter.

I knew as soon as I saw the title it was the Duggars . They're so overrated. You know they fight like cats and dogs when the tv cameras aren't around!

Ahh yes! Bountiful is one of many places that IMO needs to be shut down for good! The abuse that goes on in the name of Christianity is sickening! And all those poor little girls who have nothing to say about it need desperatly to be rescued from this cult!

where the HELL are they getting the money to be able to provide all of em?!?!!?

Ohh, I know! And they decided today not to charge anyone with stat rape. It is absolute bullcrap. You would not believe the stuff that goes on there.

i want at least 10 kids

Welfare. Or else they hire out the older children to work.

They must be rich, otherwise wouldn't child protective services step in? says they've been on television several times, that'd earn them a bit. I think it's nice they like having children, I do have to say what's with giving their kids names starting with J? and just imagine birthdays and christmas time... I feel sorry for their grandparents and relatives

i think she is going a bit too far, how many cildren do you need and how are you going to spend time with them all?

If these are the people I think they are, they actually are Mormons, and Mormons believe the more kids you have the higher in heaven you go.

my father was the youngest of 16... sooo this doesn't surprise me

Your poor Grandma!!!

somebody give a pants to the dad!

she passed away by the time my dad turned 4 as did his father alcoholism and suicide respectively from what i hear they weren't very good people

AAWWW, your poor dad! That is sad.

Oh I love the Duggars!

For those of you who don't know of this family, a few things that I find very interesting.

They have been debt free for 15+ years, and have no credit cards.

They recently, in the last 3 years, built a new house. 90% of the work was done by Jim Bob and his family, roof, walls, cement, floors, windows and electric and heat, they only hired a contractor at the very end so it would be finished before their last child (#16) was born. The Duggars estimate all the family members combined have worked approximately 39,000 total hours building their new house.

Once (sometimes twice) a year, they take a family vacation, packing everyone into 2 RVs or a van and an RV, with a tailor on the back, and going cross country.

The Duggars feed their entire brood for less than $2,000 per month. My gods that woman can budget!

If you ever get a chance, watch the shows. And yes, while I'm sure they fight behind the cameras, even the best, and the smallest familys fight sometimes. They seem to have things under control. And yeah, shes getting a little old to be having so many children, maybe she'll slow down a little.

Oh, and Glory, no government assistance. Jim Bob works, and Michelle is my idol when it comes to budgeting!

Meet the family!

My grandmother had I think 22 siblings. xD But it's kinda rare to see that nowadays..

So much entertainment nowadays compared to back then, making babies was the only form of entertainment really. xD!

Eh my father had 9+ kids, we're not sure, but with a lot of different women, and he never stuck around for any of them. Not the same, lol.

That is called family life. Take my 3 kids to an event, and good as gold.... Get in the car, and the squabbling starts. Bit like the Simpsons.
I am assuming you do not have kids, or you run a very tight grip over tham as they are about 5-10




Not too long ago, the average family size in Britain was often 9+ kids.




Anyways.... Most of you are looking to pick something wrong. They are self dependant from what I read, loving and even the grown children are around, so must be appreciative of the parents and family.

Why attack on any level you can find?

I've seen the shows featuring the Duggar family...fascinating family. I cant imagine being in a family that big

I have 9 brothers and a sister, and still can't imagine it! then again, they are all grown and we lived in different houses growing up.

If I could have more kids, I would, maybe 3 or 4 max.. dun think I have the patients to deal with 17 though.

Although I could never imagine having 17 kids, they do seem to have it under control. Living in a 7,000 sq. ft home, being home schooled, not living on welfare. I'm sure the older ones have to help taking care of the younger ones. But being pregnant for 10 years out of your life has to take a toll on the mom...Just reading about having 17 kids made me exhausted...

More power to them - at least they are increasing the population of hard-working, cooperative, responsible people. As long as they are happy and can take care of their own... go have fun.

That's good to hear. We get kind of screwed up here in Canada with Bountiful and these people have a similar dress and family dynamics to a family I knew from there.

Holy crap. That's just nuts. I don't think I even have the patience for one kid, but 17? O.O Wow. That has got to be stressful. Could you imagine going out somewhere? I'd be terrified I couldn't look after them all and one would run off and get hurt, or get snatched up by some psycho. I bet it's hard to spend time with all of them too. I mean, you know that at least one of the kids has to feel neglected sometimes. It's just amazing to see so many kids, and to hear that having a bunch of kids was normal way back when.

As long as they aren't a burden on society (just their parents, heh), I see no problem with this.

There's no way I could do it. I'd be dead by now. My two boys were enough for this old body.

Where I grew up, in central New York, we had a family of 22. (I think the last name was Fox.) They lived about a mile down the road from us in an old farm house (no paint, even) and then bought a trailer for the overflow.

The older kids usually took care of the younger kids. The father worked full time, but they still qualified for welfare.

Even though the house lacked paint, they still kept up their yard, and they all worked very hard. I remember watching the father and older sons skin a pig one summer--what a horrible smell!

My father-in-law was #13 (he was the last of the brood). He was born on the 13th and weighed 13 pounds. Heh! Poor woman, but probably by that time, the babies just fell out.

Oh--and I forgot--they had so many babies the ran out of names. My father-in-law is William A. (Aloysius) and his brother is William B. (Bernard).

BUT, way back when, the mortality rates for children were way higher than they are now. And, they needed as many kids as they could so that the farm was ran by tha family, not hired hands so that they could support themselves and make a bit of a profit.

I know all about that, but it doesn't make me look at it any differently. I still couldn't imagine trying to raise so many kids. If anything, there was even more stress over children then than there is now.

Not only that, can you imagine the amount of washing that would have to be done - hands like sandpaper

When I was a little kid, my aunt once asked me "when you grow up, do you want children?"

"Oh yes" I said "I want 11".

Looking back, I realize now, why she and my mum gave each other such an amazed look LOL.

11 kids? I just about, in the end managed two!

I wouldn't have been able to cope with 17 kids that's for sure!

Whoa, that's alot of work there. I hope the mama let's her body rest for a while. In a way it's kind of cool, but then it's like, dang ,17 kids...

The Discovery Channel ((Discovery Health)) has aired many shows on the Duggar family. Here is a Discovery Chanel page devoted only to this family Click Here
I think another show is due out the end of this month... I wonder if #18 will be a boy or a girl?? Jody

There was an article in the papers last week in the UK about a couple who have 12 children, both on welfare they've had a £500,000 GBP house bought for them and receive £40,000 GBP a year welfare.

I'm one of 11 my dad worked every day of his life.

17 kids is waaay to much. I can't believe they want to have more kids. Geez. Don't they have a enough? I can't believe that.

I haven't decided how many kids I want. But it'll be not like this couple.

Then you should be happy your father was honourable~ Not sponging from the gov't like most people with a load of kids do.

I just meant that back in those days, a woman could give birth to 12 kids and end up with 4 who lived to adulthood. For me, not only would having a lot of kids running around be too much for me, but losing any of them would kill me. I guess I am a contradiction.

I am happy, and very proud of my father, he was shot twice in WW2, played football for a well known team before the war, and carried on playing until he was 45, and run his own successful business.

I have no problem with people having whatever amount of children they desire, so long as they have the rescourcs to provide for that said number of children.

Let's get to the bottom of the biggest story in this article.

They had 16 previous kids and they all had names starting with the letter J.

Why wasn't Jennifer already used?

They are probably rabbits.

Over population is a burden on the entire planet.

Then lets start the cleansing with the developing world.

As far as I'm concerned over population in the developed world is a small problem compared to that in the developing world.

how old were they when they started?

who wants 17 kids?

man if that happened in australia they would be rich with the baby bonus thing and peter costello would consider them Gods and the saviours of australia

Rember its "one for dad one for mum and one for the country " not "one for dad one for mum and a baseball team for the country"

Haha, I swear that has to be one of the most used sound bites in Australia.

I watched a tv documentry on this family. they are both religous fanatics.