If you know just one thing about Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, it’s that they have 19 children.
(Twenty if you count Tyler’s adoptive son, who is nowhere to be seen. Maybe it’s because his name doesn’t start with a “J”?)
If you know two about the Duggars, the second is probably a wildly dysfunctional family structured around a complex network of toxic relationships.
It’s almost impossible to imagine that both parents can fully provide for their 19 offspring, and Jim Bob and Michelle certainly don’t.
In fact, the Duggars adopted a “buddy system” of parenting that basically freed Jim Bob and Michelle from the burden of trying to bond with an entire army of offspring.
Of course, every parent seems to enjoy a special relationship with at least one child, and a recent discussion on the r/DuggarSnark subreddit seeks to answer a question that often pops up in this Duggar-centric corner of the internet:
Which Duggar kid is your favorite?
Unsurprisingly, fans concluded that Jim Bob and Michelle had different favorites.
Fans speculated that Michelle’s favorite children were either Josie or Jinger.
With Jim Bob, there was no uncertainty – everyone agreed that his favorite was Josh.
Which boy does Jim Bob like?
“Josh. That makes me sad – but I believe the theory that he is the only child that can be properly bonded,” wrote one commenter.
“That because of the miscarriage, the twins and the indoctrination became a stronger faith, he was the only child he was tied to.
“JimBob used to like Josh and Jill. That’s why he took Jill to Nepal. This is the best 1:1 he’s ever had with parents,” added another.
“He has now rejected them. His favorites now are Josh and Jessa. Jessa never breaks the rules and acts as the spokesperson for the family.
“Josh. He’s the only child we know of as a natural consequence of being a young couple in a relationship,” said a third.
“Everything else is a trauma response to a miscarriage or fulfilling a narcissistic need.”
Yes, we’re talking about the same Josh Duggar who is currently serving a 151-month sentence on child pornography charges.
Apparently, a life of monstrously violent behavior is not enough to remove Josh from his father’s good graces.
Ironically, Jim Bob has been known to deny or cut off contact with his children as punishment for the crime of disobeying him.
But apparently he doesn’t consider possession of child pornography to be as heinous a crime as disobedience to his father.
Either that or Jim Bob actually believes that Josh is innocent and will be acquitted on appeal.
Anyway, the consensus seems to be that JB’s eldest son is still the favorite.
This is just one reminder of how close this family really is.