All the Times the Duggar Ladies Have Been Mom-Shamed

With nearly 20 kids and more than 30 grandchildren in the ever-growing family, the Duggars have had their fair share of parenting criticism. From Jill Dillard (née Duggar) and Jessa Seewald (née Duggar) to cousin Amy King (née Duggar) and the matriarch herself, Michelle Duggar, the 19 Kids and Counting alums are no strangers to being mom-shamed.

Jessa, who shares children Spurgeon, Henry, Ivy and Fern with her husband, Ben Seewald, previously opened up about her experience with mom shamers, saying, “You have to be careful not to just become jaded at people.”

Deal of the Day

Only $12! — (And No One Will Know They Aren’t Designer) View Deal

“Whenever I look at people who are super, super negative or super hateful in their comments, a lot of times they’re not real people in the sense that, like, it’s an account that has zero posts, zero followers created specifically for hating,” Jessa explained to Us Weekly in July 2020. “We just have to remind ourselves, like, we don’t live for the approval of every single person out there. We love each other. We love our kids. We love God and we try to live our lives to please God. … You can’t please every single person out there.”

She continued, “We don’t really know the experience of that person and what they’re going through. You know, maybe they’ve had a really rough day … I think it’s important to be understanding and just kind of take people where they’re at.”

The mother of four is certainly not the only Duggar mama to experience online hate, however.

Have a tip? Send it to us! Email In Touch at contact@intouchweekly.com.

Jill Duggar

A 2018 YouTube video resurfaced in July 2023 showing Jill demonstrating a stroller hack that she learned from her mom.

“A little trick my mama taught me for creating a basic, compact infant stroller,” she captioned the video. In the clip, the Counting On alum is seen pulling the handlebar of the car seat all the way back before sliding it over on top of the stroller. “This is super nice whenever you’re in a hurry, you don’t have a lot of space and you can’t fit the super, bulky stroller in the car.”

Viewers were quick to bash the mother of three online with one fan saying, “This really, really pissed me off when watching the show. … They were rolling in money by the time precious miracle came along, and they couldn’t be bothered to buy their extremely fragile micro preemie a proper stroller.”

Amy Duggar

Shortly after giving birth to her son, Daxton,

Shortly after giving birth to her son, Daxton, Amy Duggar shared a meme about being mom shamed.

“Yes, please give me your unsolicited parenting advice, you most certainly know my child better than I do,” her post read. “How I’m feeling right now. I mean, it’s sad that there are even memes about this. … I might be a first-time mom, but I know what I’m doing,” she added.

shared a meme about being mom shamed.

Jessa Duggar

Over the years, Jessa has become the queen of clapbacks, particularly at mom shamers. Clearly over the unsolicited advice and rude remarks, Jessa often preemptively strikes against critics.

After sharing a photo of her sons playing in the bed of a truck, the mom of four wrote, “Yes, we’re barefoot, and we kept away from the roll of barbed wire, and he didn’t get to keep the prized nail that he found. There. Beat ya to it.”

Michelle Duggar

The mother of 19 has been criticized for many of her parenting techniques over the years, the most notable possibly being their use of “blanket training.”

“You put the kid on a blanket, probably six months old. And you put something they want, just outside of reach, off the blanket. And when they go to reach for it, you hit them,” a former IBLP member said during the Amazon Prime documentary, Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets. “And if they continue to reach for it, you hit them again. The idea is that you’re breaking the rebellious spirit they are born with.”

According to niece Amy, Michelle called it “encouragement.”

“They literally said, ‘You need to come into the room, and we need to give you some encouragement,’” Amy said, referring to the form of parenting. “But it was in the sweetest tone ever, like, ‘Do you need encouragement? I think you need encouragement.’”