Counting the Cost

by Jill Duggar

I was a ten-year-old girl whose parents trusted her with their precious babies. I felt like a little mom.

They gave her a job and made it seem liks a prize.

My sister Jana also formed a club that met in the shed and ate ice cream. I went to all of them regularly, especially Jana’s.

We stan Jana

between their collarbone and knees,

That's a lot of real estate Michelle

“I flipped a coin three times,”

You prayed and the flipped coin?????

unsafe.

This 12 year old does not feel safe in her home on day 1! Sad

tater tot casserole or bean sandwiches.

Which they later popularized for money

but we knew enough already to understand why it was only Jana who was invited. She was the only elder Duggar girl who was blond, and everybody knew that Mr. Gothard liked blond girls. We’d joke about it, calling Jana one of “Gothard’s Girls.” It didn’t occur to me at all how strange, unsafe, and unwise it was.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jana we need this story

there was a soft rule that we couldn’t do social media until we were married.

Seems pretty hard core for the girls

the parents’ authority didn’t end when their child turned eighteen or even on the day they were married.

parental authority never stopped, never weakened.

made the two of them appear like inexperienced, naïve kids who had grown up in a sheltered environment and were about to head off to have sex for the first time.

But that's true

after laboring for sixty-eight hours

No

Mom and Pops didn’t treat us as slaves when we were building the Big House, they treated us as co-workers, worthy of respect and praise. And when the job was finished and we got to move in, all of us who were old enough to walk, talk, and at the very least hold a paintbrush, could point to parts of our home and say, “I did that.” It gave us a sense of purpose and created within us an even deeper bond that held us together.

But they should have treated you like children