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Jana Duggar Selfie Causes Outrage, Concern Among Fans: What’s The Big Deal

By Aaron Homer
Published on: 06:24 PST, May 31, 2017

A selfie photo of Jana Duggar and some friends is causing outrage and concern among followers of the Duggar Family, but what’s the problem?

As the International Business Times reports, on Tuesday, a photo of Jana and some friends popped up on the family’s official Facebook page. The photo shows the oldest Duggar daughter, 27, in a wooded area with a pond in the background. Joining her are a handful of children, some (if not all) of whom are either her younger siblings or her nephews and nieces, plus a couple of people who appear to be adult women (perhaps her sisters and/or sisters-in-law).

It’s not the picture itself that has observers concerned, but rather it’s the caption. Specifically, it’s the “time to get out of the house” part.

As you may or may not be aware, at 27, Jana Duggar should, by all rights, have left the family home by now. Considering that some of her siblings who are barely out of their teens have married off and started families of their own, the fact that Jana, pushing 30, remains at home is a bone of contention.

Fans speculate that Jana is, in essence, being forbidden from marrying and being held hostage, so to speak, in the family home, being made to provide free child care for her younger siblings.

As one fan put it rather succinctly, “The reason Jana isn’t married is this picture. She is in charge of raising the younger children. She isn’t allowed by daddy. He also doesn’t allow the Duggar girls to get a college education. They are married off to make more children.”

Other fans echoed similar sentiments.

“Is this poor girl ever NOT on kid duty?”

“Can’t they just leave Jana alone sometimes or do they have to be with the poor girl everywhere she goes?”

The idea that Jana is being made to provide free child care for the family is not a completely foreign one. Jana still has eight siblings under the age of 18 at home. Four of them — Johannah, Jennifer, Jordan, and Josie — are all pre-teens or younger. As any mom of even one or two preteens (or teenagers) can tell you, keeping up with the kids’ demands is a full-time job. What’s more, the Duggar children are all home-schooled. Meanwhile, Michelle and Jim Bob are popular speakers, which means that they’re oft away from home on speaking engagements. That means that someone needs to keep an eye on all those kids.

Further, Jana’s father, Jim Bob, tightly controls what his children are allowed to do. In the family’s patriarchal tradition, Jana can’t strike out on her own; rather, she has to get married, to a man her father approves of, first. So all Jim Bob has to do is not approve any marriages or “courtships,” and voila! Jana is forced to stay at home.

That’s the speculation, anyway. Other fans speculate that she’s quite happy with her situation.

“To those complaining, ‘poor Jana, can’t she ever have time alone’ does she look miserable? Cause I see a smile on her face. She also took the photo, so I’m guessing she wanted to take the photo and wasn’t being forced.”

Of course, no one knows what’s going on between Jana and her family behind closed doors. Maybe she’s essentially being held hostage by her family’s beliefs, maybe she just hasn’t found the right guy, or maybe she’s quite happy being an ersatz nanny until she’s ready to leave the nest. Unless and until Jana says otherwise, no one will ever know.

Do you believe Jana Duggar is being forced to provide free child care for her siblings, nieces, and nephews? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

[Featured Image by Duggar Family/Facebook]

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