Courtesy of Austin and Joy-Anna Forsyth/Instagram
Counting On’s Joy-Anna Duggar Denies Putting Son Gideon’s Hearing at Risk After Facing Backlash
Doing her best! Joy-Anna Forsyth (née Duggar) was surprised to see fans call her out for not protecting son Gideon’s hearing after dad Austin Forsyth taught him about chainsaws. After mom-shamers insisted that she was harming her child, the Counting On star took the opportunity to clear the air. In an Instagram comment on her post from Monday, March 9, she shut the parent police down.
“Learning how to clear land from Papa!” Joy, 22, captioned two shots of her family. In one, she cuddled up to her toddler son while he wore protective earmuffs. In another, dad Austin, 26, was wearing the earmuffs as he helped Gideon, 2, hold the heavy machinery. Fans were quick to point out that, if they were using a chainsaw, the toddler’s ears should be covered at all times.
“Austin has ear protection but your precious baby doesn’t?” one commenter wrote. “[You are] teaching [your] kids that this deadly tool is a toy.” The mom didn’t agree, though — and she pointed out that no damage was done.
“It wasn’t running,” she explained cooly. “I just wanted to get a picture of Gideon with Austin!” At the end of the message, she added a smiley face to show there were no hard feelings. Despite that, more than a few fans leapt to her defense.
“How about people just mind their own [parenting] and do what they feel is best for their own children instead of trying to parent other people’s children?! What a concept!” one wrote. “Can’t people just give you a break and realize you guys know what you’re doing and you love your son and you’re great parents? Jeesh!” another added.
A third chimed in, “If you look at the pic closely, you can see that the saw isn’t running. And if you teach them while they are young, they will grow up to know these things can be dangerous. But if you don’t or become a closed-minded person like you, then they’ll never know. At least they are trying to teach their child.”
Ouch! Maybe next time the commenters will keep their criticism to themselves. But, hey, at least everyone had Gideon’s best interest in mind, right?
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