[Warning: Potentially Triggering Content]
The new docuseries on the Duggars was released over the weekend, and along with all the bombshells dropped by the family themselves, viewers have THOUGHTS about one specific scene.
As Perezcious readers know, Prime Video‘s four-part doc Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets has had jaws on the floor since even before it got released on Friday. In the trailer alone we saw some pretty wild and horrific accusations against not only parents Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar but against their religious sect, the Institute of Basic Life Principles (or IBLP). And now, the parents and their beliefs are once again being criticized by viewers over one unnerving scene in particular…
Related: Jill Duggar Explains How Dad Jim Bob STOLE Kids’ Reality TV Money
In a clip from the doc, 56-year-old matriarch Michelle takes the stage at an IBLP parenting conference in 2014. While speaking to the room of attendees, she explains their method of parenting and way of life was something to be amazed by, saying:
“It is so sweet, it goes into all areas of their life.”
Then, on a screen behind her a clip of what Michelle refers to as “sweet” plays — and viewers don’t find it to be sweet at all! Showing a rarely-seen and now 13-year-old Josie Duggar as just a toddler, standing in a pink dress in front of a toilet, the TLC star encourages her youngest child to “say it again,” to which the baby girl raises her arms and chants:
“Instant obedience to initial prompting of God’s spirit!”
Uh…
Yeah, that’s not something you expect to hear out of a toddler’s mouth! Even older kids would have trouble understanding what that means, much less a child at this age. It’s clearly indoctrination on their part — which, according to the doc, is exactly what they were striving for!
The clip eventually made its way to Instagram, where user withoutacrystalball AKA Katie Joy wrote in the caption that Michelle was talking about “obedience training” her children — and the details are so disturbing:
“This training can include the use of a rod but it doesn’t always include physical punishment. Michelle shared the clip after discussing having the kids sit on a chair for 5 minutes and not move. Which is similar to blanket training. She said they “practiced” obedience 3-4 times a day. The practice was developed by Michael Pearl who believed training dogs and kids was the same thing.”
Training children like training dogs?! Just awful…
Ch-ch-check out the disturbing clip (below):
Viewers were quick to take to the comments and point out how messed up they believe this is, with some of them writing:
“This is so sad. I saw this and my heart breaks for those kids. This is child abuse. Why did TLC keep quiet? They were filming at their home for years. No one spoke out.”
“Sweet Josie. Breaks my heart.”
“Oh the fact that this was tied to potty training makes this is even more gross. Potty training isn’t moral, it’s a body function.”
“Instant obedience is how you end up with kids who don’t think for themselves.”
“Listening to Michelle’s baby voice praising her little girl for self control just makes me irrationally angry.”
Of course, this clip is only just some of the horrific things this doc has alleged. Members of the cult-like family have even started to speak out against Jim Bob and Michelle and the awful things they’d allegedly do to keep their TV show family seemingly innocent… But of course, they still deny most of this. But not the indoctrination. That’s always been in plain sight. 19 Kids and Counting viewers have seen it the whole time, only it was presented on TLC as a quirky oddity. Now… not so much.
What do U think about this clip, Perezcious readers? Let us know in the comments (below).
If you have sincere cause to suspect child abuse, call the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-4-A-Child or 1-800-422-4453, or go to www.childhelp.org.
[Image via Prime Video/YouTube]
