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.
“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)
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