What to Know
Even though Jessa Duggar is nowhere close to having the 19 kids her mom, Michelle Duggar, had, there’s no doubt that parenting six kids under the age of 11 has to be exhausting. So when Jessa shared a post on Instagram about the days she’s going to miss when her kids are all grown up, her critics didn’t take it as her sharing a sweet moment from motherhood — instead, they saw it as a sign that her mental health might be struggling.
Jessa shared a video of herself making breakfast for her family.
The video shows Jessa’s kitchen counter as she’s making breakfast for her kids, with eggs and shredded cheese set out. Two of her little ones, George and Edward, are sitting next to her, watching her cook.
“Just a regular morning… that I know I’ll miss someday,” Jessa wrote in the video. “Little eyes watching everything. Right now I’m their whole world. One day I’ll wish I could have these moments back.
Critics believed she might be trying to convince herself she’s living in the “good old days.”
One person who caught Jessa’s post brought it up in a post of their own on Reddit, wondering if there was a darker meaning behind her post.
“I just feel like it’s concerning how Jessa has to publicly convince herself that she’ll miss these days one day on social media,” their post said. “Why isn’t she too busy in the moment enjoying herself to post about her hypothetical future self?”
Plenty of others in the comments agreed with the OP, with one writing, “Because Jessa is actually depressed. I bet deep down, she misses the days where it’s just Spurgeon, Henry, and Ivy.”
Another shared a theory that it’s not just being a mom that’s challenging for her — it’s the way her life has worked out in general, since she “rarely seems happy in the moment.”
“Ultimately because, I would guess, the life she picked isn’t actually one she enjoys,” the comment said. “I agree with the people who say she’s depressed but I’d wager it’s largely situational. She made the fundie mistake of ‘this guy gives me butterflies and I think he’s hot, AND we’re compatible on the surface, that’s the Lord telling him to marry me!’ and unlike some of them she’s smart enough to know she could’ve done better.”
Some people did come to Jessa’s defense, though.
One fellow parent wrote, “I’m not defending her or disagreeing with any of the comments but I will say sometimes you have moments that are so stressful with little ones that you remind yourself you will miss them one day so enjoy the moment now.”
Raising kids — especially young ones, and especially six at a time — can really be an exhausting time in your life that comes with a lot of stress, tantrums, and messes that make it easy to forget that one day, you’ll look back and miss this time when they were still little.
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