Jessa Seewald has been shooting out kids since she married Ben Seewald at the ripe old age of 21. Now 32-year-old and pregnant with her sixth child, the former Counting On star says she has had to deal with her share of nasty comments from people who don’t approve of her having so many children.
In her latest YouTube video, Jessa answered a fan’s question regarding how she deals with the negative comments she often gets because she has a lot of kids (and, presumably, plans to have many more). Like her parents Michelle and Jim Bob Duggar and many of her 19 siblings, Jessa has vowed to leave the number of children she and Ben have “up to God.” This plan has resulted in Jessa having a child roughly every two years or so since she and Ben married in 2014.
Jessa stated that most of the hateful comments she gets about her ever-growing super-sized family are from people online.
“When it comes to negative opinions— and I know this is not the case for everyone— but for me, personally, I’ve never had anyone walk up to my face and be nasty or rude,” she said. “But I have heard a lot of rude and unnecessary comments. But generally, those are just online.
“People will be like, ‘Oh, you’re breeding like rabbits’ or ‘You’re crazy’ or ‘Are you trying to follow in your mom’s footsteps? Are you going to have 19?'”
Jessa assured fans that she is not going to have 19 kids; however, she says Michelle is her hero for doing so.
“She is my role model in so many ways,” she said. “Her patience, her love, her gentleness, her kind speech. She is the golden example of a mother, in my opinion.”
Jessa said she is aware that how she presents the news of another pregnancy may affect how people receive it.
“We do set the tone…sometimes we can cater to how we think other people might receive the news in the way we present it,” she said. “So if we think like, ‘Oh this person might judge me for having another baby, then we might be quicker to present the information in a way that’s kind of like backpedaling, if that makes sense, or apologizing somehow for where we are in life or our life decisions.”
Later, Jessa stressed that she and Ben know what they want when it comes to the number of “blessings” they can handle.
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“I think at the end of the day it really comes down to being confident in the decisions we’ve made as a family, as a couple and before God,” Jessa said. “And we don’t live for the opinions or the approval of other people. There will always be people who will be on one end of the spectrum or the other. Whether it’s ‘Oh, you shouldn’t have that many kids’ or ‘You should have a maximum number of kids possible.’ I don’t really feel like we fit into either one of those categories.”
Jessa explained that she and Ben don’t think there’s anything wrong with “spacing” kids or “planning your family, or being done at a certain point.”
Jessa explained that she and Ben knew going into their marriage that they were going to be pumping out a lot of kids.
“I think we had thrown out the number seven or something,” she said. (It was actually 15. During a 2015 episode of Jill & Jessa: Counting On, Ben proclaimed that he “always had these crazy thoughts when I was young. I thought I would be playing football with my 15 sons.” Jessa agreed that having 15 sons would be “awesome.”)
Anyway, after squatting out five kids, Jessa’s thoughts on that have changed a bit.
“We always take it one at a time…Ben’s concern is always my health, and also, our capacity to care for each one and love them well and help raise them up until adulthood,” Jessa said. “Our ultimate goal is to see each one come to know and love the Lord. So I don’t necessarily think that’s it a quantity thing like, ‘Oh you can’t do that well if you have a bunch’ or ‘You can only do it well if you have a few.’
“I do think God’s grace is sufficient, but we do need to know our frame. Whether you have one or 19, it’s just relying on the Lord and trusting in Him,” she added.
Currently, Jessa more kids than all of her siblings except for Josh. The felon is father to seven children with his wife Anna. A few of Jessa’s sibings— including her sisters Jill Dillard and Jinger Vuolo— have spoken out against their parents’ idea that a married couple should have as many children as possible.
“Growing up, it was ingrained in me that if you don’t have as many kids as you’re able to, that there’s something wrong with that,” Jill said during a 2020 interview. “But there was a shift in me where I felt like it wasn’t wrong if you decide as a couple that it’s best for you to wait.
“Children are a blessing, but that doesn’t mean that at all costs you should have as many kids as possible,” she added.
You can watch Jessa’s full video below.
RELATED STORY: Another One! Jessa Duggar & Husband Ben Seewald Announce They’re Expecting Baby No. 6
(Photos: TLC; Instagram; YouTube)
26 Responses
Ah, yes; Michelle Duggar – role model.
The way she put her parental responsibilities off on her kids, the way she didn’t protect her kids from the predator in her home, the way she blanket trained her infants. A truly outstanding human 😒
What is blanket training?
When you put a baby on a blanket and hit them every time they move off the blanket. You’re “training” the baby to stay on the blanket.
So, abuse. Blanket training is abuse.
I don’t care how many kids she has if she’s taking care of them. I do care that she is publicly against abortion even though she had one and is lying about it. I also feel bad for her oldest kid because what kind of name is Spurgeon anyway?!
She had MISCARRIAGE. Full stop. It’s extremely offensive and hurtful to tell a woman who’s experienced a miscarriage, still birth, etc. that they had an abortion. What is wrong with you? Do better.
She had a miscarriage at home and then went to the hospital to have the fetal tissue removed. That procedure is called a medical abortion. It is not offensive to acknowledge reality and truth. I think it’s offensive that she had the procedure done but doesn’t want others to have the same option. YOU need to do better and actually educate yourself before you go getting offended and hurt. It is literally a life saving procedure!
From the Mayo Clinic website
“Dilation and curettage (D&C) is a procedure to remove tissue from inside your uterus. Health care professionals perform dilation and curettage to diagnose and treat certain uterine conditions — such as heavy bleeding — or to clear the uterine lining after a miscarriage or abortion.”
Sam is correct, and THIS is what’s so dangerous about the legislation that bans abortion.
Nope, OP is right. And this is (one of) the problem with the rigid restrictions on abortion. Women who need abortions for medical reasons like this are facing roadblocks that jeopardize their lives.
It has some religious meaning. Ben was trying to get into seminary school and they were sucking up to the church. It didn’t work; he didn’t get in.
Maybe a rude question but I’ve always wondered, what does it do to your body (internally) to have so many? Wouldn’t she already have bladder control issues, for instance? That alone would have me reaching for birth control
She’s had some serious hemorrhaging issues. I think a couple other of her sisters have as well.
I think it depends on the person. My mom only had 4 and she has a lot of bladder issues. She also had complications from ulcerative colitis and had to have part of her intestines removed. She can’t clot to literally save her life anymore either. I can’t confirm those things are directly linked to having 4 kids, though. I think doing a paper on how the quiverfull movement can damage women’s bodies and what that damage actually looks like would be fascinating. The bone density loss alone after 19 kids has to be risky
I think it’s completely dependent on the person and how each pregnancy/delivery goes. I have five babies (first three are back-to-back-to-back and then there was a four year space before twins) and I don’t have any bladder issues, but I know women with only one or two kids that do have them. I do, however, have back and hip problems, and I know for sure the twins are a big part of the hip issue. I feel like my teeth are a little weaker after each pregnancy. I had alos just gotten my energy back and my hormones regulated when I got pregnant with the twins, so I’d finally “bounced back” and now they’re almost two and it’s like I’m back to square one.
Even with some physical issues, my husband and I both agree that we’d have loved to have three more if the economy wasn’t so bad, just because that feels like the right number for us, but we’re happy with our five. Doctors said I had a “perfect” twin pregnancy and delivery, and I feel like a lot of that had to do with my body knowing what it was doing, if that makes sense.
A lot of the negativity she gets, while may not necessarily be directed at the number of kids she has, may have a little something to do with it indirectly. If they cannot provide and care for that many children, on their own (and they can’t), it’s not surprising they receive negativity. Couple that with the cult they were part of, the way they continue to tout their religious beliefs as if they are law with which we should all strive to govern the entire world, and the way she STILL idolizes and sings praises about her parents despite all the skeletons no longer in the closet surrounding them (and we can only imagine how many heinous ones are still in there!) and yeah, she’s getting well-deserved flack online.
I have a lot of kids, we get funny looks sometimes if we’re all out together-especially if the now adult children who still look like teens come too, lol. I’ve also gotten lots and lots of smiles. I’ve gotten nasty comments online from people who think I “have too many”, and also nice comments. But the funny part about most of that is…not a single one of my children is biologically mine. The looks and comments would happen regardless, how you “deal” with them matters. I take in the kindness and let the not-so kindness flutter right on out the door with a smile.
None of my children have “buddies” they are responsible for. Do they play with one another, help out around the house, help out a sibling if they need it or I need an extra set of hands for a few minutes? Sure. Like a while back when we had an infant who needed 24/7 care and was with us purely for hospice/EoL care, I had a few extra hands helping get littles off to school, throwing a load of clothes in the washer or helping to keep a wild preschooler entertained for a few minutes outside to get his ridiculously overactive wiggles out. Is it EXPECTED of them? Hell no. Me and my better half chose to add these children to our home, for a season or a lifetime, and it’s our job to raise them regardless of how long they are with us. We didn’t bring these children into our family to help raise the other children in our family, that’s just asinine. This is also where she gets a lot of flack from, as she intends to do the same with her kids as Michelle did with them, she’s literally always said she wants her older kids to get to experience the buddy system the way she did.
I’m from a big family. We never got negative comments. I think the negativity comes from the fundamentalist cult you are raising them in, Jessa. She was also known as the Duggar mean girl who bullied her sisters. She plays favorites with her eldest son and eldest daughter. There are many reasons to dislike her…the size of her family isn’t the issue.
I have a feeling Jessa and Ben are on track to have more kids than Josh and Anna if they continue to pop out a new baby once every two years.
Oh, come on…six is not THAT many. Drama queen.
I have 5 kids. They are very well behaved, good people. I give each of them all the support and love they need. I don’t hand them off to the older ones like Michelle did. It can be done. Just not the way Michelle did it.
The real problem is Kody Brown. He doesn’t care about most of his kid. Only Robyn’s.
I just wish all those kids could receive a proper education instead of being homeschool by her who is barely literate herself
I agree with her I see so many negative comments towards big families online but I have 7 kids and I have never had anyone say anything negative to me about it. Usually it is positive or the comments like ‘wow you have your hands full’ or ‘oh my gosh I don’t know how you do it’ but I don’t consider those negative.
I don’t think we should celebrate any child.That is brought into the world through fundamentalist christianity. Jessa was important and raised to be nothing more but to be bred as many times as possible. This should not be celebrated, and most likely. Her kids will have minimal education just like her, and we’ll never be able to the out in the world and truly stand on their own two feet, like jessa did, which is why jim bob didn’t want them to have an education
I personally don’t care how many kids anybody has, but I do care that she’s going to be teaching her children to be nothing more than cum dumpsters
I’m pretty sure there are worse places for a child to live than the Duggars. For crying out loud, they had a fountain machine.
Well they were assaulted by their brother so yeah I think it’s pretty bad
Yeah, the wonderful fountain machine having Dugger house where *four* wildly unprotected girls were sexually abused by their brother and then silenced by their own parents. I’m sure that machine made everything allll better for them. 🙄Idiocy abounds.
Is this another example of Farrah’s word salad? Lol