If you didn’t know it before, you know it now: You can’t trust the Duggars.
Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar finally spoke publicly about their son Josh’s molestation of four of their daughters when he was a teenager in an interview with Fox News journalist Megyn Kelly.
However, the heads of the 19 Kids and Counting family weren’t exactly candid in the interview, which was more like a PR exercise in damage control.
The couple tried to imply that Josh’s actions were the result of “bad choices” and youthful curiosity, and that his sisters were not at all damaged by them because they didn’t understand what he was doing. They said, that it was not a big deal, because they girls were asleep most of the time when it happened (and it mostly happened in their beds, except when it happened on the couch). Ye gads…
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The issue I had with the interview was that they seemed to imply that for the youngest of his victims she wouldn't remember it and they downplayed the potential trauma of the event. This is wrong. This exact thing happened to me when I was 5 and it has seriously affected my life. I developed long-term OCD, anxiety and depression and having a healthy sex life with my husband has been difficult. I've since had two children and I suffered tremendously before knowing their gender (both boys) for fear that if they were a girl I would be unable to prevent what happened to me happening to them.
While I honestly believe they did what they thought was best for their children I don't like the implication that sexual abuse committed against a 5 year old would be forgotten. If only.
I'm so sorry this happened to you. Thank you for sharing your story.
I agree with you. When traumatic things happen to kids, I have heard people say "thank goodness they won't remember this", but they do! Even if it's not an immediate memory, the trauma is embedded in them. I was one of those kids. I was raped at the age of 3. Didn't remember any of it til I was in my 20s, when I was sexually harassed in my job, I started experiencing 'body memories' and then finally I had the memories of that day when I was 3 come back, as well as surrounding days. It explains a lot about why I'm so fearful, why I have trust issues and why the idea of intimacy scares the hell out of me. No matter what trauma a child suffers (car accident, sexual abuse etc) they need to deal with it before it becomes an issue in their adult life! Mental health is just as (if not even more) important than physical health. You may not notice the bumps, bruises and scars, but they are there - and ignoring them doesn't make them go away!