Kendra Caldwell’s youth and inexperience have earned her the pity of some Duggar family fans. There’s a possibility that the wife of Counting On star Joseph Duggar will still be a teenager when she gives birth to her first child, and some fans are worried that she’s too young to be taking on the responsibility of being a wife and mother. A member of the Duggar family, Jinger’s pastor husband Jeremy Vuolo, has also spoken out against young people becoming parents.
On Saturday, the Duggar family shared a Facebook video of 19-year-old Kendra Caldwell wishing her husband a happy 23rd birthday. She and Joseph Duggar recently announced that they’re expecting their first child, but Kendra kept her baby bump out of the video by filming from the chest up.
“Happy birthday, Joe! I love you so much, and I am so thankful for the four months that we’ve been married,” Kendra says to the camera. “I hope that you have a wonderful, blessed, awesome, amazing day.”
Some fans responded to the video by commenting on Kendra Cadwell’s youthful appearance.
“She doesn’t even look like she’s old enough to be married,” read one remark.
“Too young to be married, or to even know who she is. And she’ll never know, because she’s been brain-washed. It’s all very sad,” wrote another concerned commenter.
As reported by The Hollywood Gossip , fans began making comments like this shortly after Kendra Caldwell and Joseph Duggar tied the knot in September. Many Duggar critics have complained about Kendra’s conservative Christian upbringing, lamenting that she was raised to be nothing more than a wife and mother .
https://www.facebook.com/duggarfamilyofficial/videos/1199061833560797/
However, numerous Duggar family supporters responded to the recent critical comments about Kendra Caldwell by pointing out that Joseph Duggar’s young wife is legally an adult. Others mentioned knowing happily married women who got hitched at even younger ages, and one fan even used the Virgin Mary to defend the Counting On star.
“Mary had Jesus at 13. Just learned that about a year ago,” wrote Kendra’s white knight. “Wow. She was a awesome mother.”
Kendra Caldwell’s brother-in-law, Jeremy Vuolo, probably would not use Mary’s alleged age to advocate for teenage pregnancy. Jinger Duggar and her husband are also going to be first-time parents soon, but Jinger is half a decade older than Kendra. Jeremy waited until he was 28-years-old to get married, and he’ll be 30 when he becomes a father.
During a sermon titled “ Raising Children God’s Way ,” the Texas pastor let his congregation know that he does not approve of teenagers becoming parents. While preaching about the breakdown of society, he recounted an experience he had at a Chick-fil-A.
“There’s a young couple sitting next to us with a couple of kids,” Jeremy recounted. “I would look over to these kids, and they were kids with kids.”
Jeremy didn’t say how old he thought the “kids with kids” were. However, he deemed the father an unfit parent after observing him for a short time.
“I saw the kid telling his kid what to do, and I was thinking, ‘He doesn’t know how to be a dad. He doesn’t know how to love that little girl. He’s just a kid himself.’”
It’s unclear whether Jinger Duggar’s husband would take issue with a 19-year-old like Kendra getting pregnant, but he judged the parents in his sermon based on how young they looked, not their actual ages.
According to The Hollywood Gossip , Kendra Caldwell has not yet revealed her due date , but she was likely three months into her pregnancy when she and Joseph Duggar broke their big baby news on December 18. This means her due date is sometime in June or July.
Kendra turns 20 in August, so there’s a high likelihood that she’ll become the first member of the Duggar family to give birth as a teenager. Matriarch Michelle Duggar didn’t even accomplish this feat; as reported by Entertainment Weekly , the mother of 19 got married at age 17. However, she and Jim Bob Duggar waited four years before starting a family.
