Jessa Duggar courtship: Big Brother has nothing on Big Parent surveillance
Ben Seewald, 18 had to endure a parental security screening of Biblical proportions in order to date reality star Jessa Duggar, 20, the third daughter of Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar, which delivers the tired old message that parents鈥� arms are long enough to box with God over matters of the heart.
The Duggar鈥檚 strong 海角大神 beliefs have led them and America, by virtue of their reality star status on their聽TLC reality series 鈥�19 Kids & Counting,鈥� to turn dating into an NSA-worthy invasive undertaking.
For starters it鈥檚 hard to get past the fact that Jessa is age 20 which is generally a point at which young women have been thinking for themselves for quite a while and hopefully are able to make these kinds of choices by drawing on what her parents have instilled in her.
I would be interested to know if girls who want to date their sons go through the exact same process. I have known parents who screen female prospects just as carefully, like the old queen in The Princess and the Pea.
Also, the Duggar parents are taking a page from the NSA playbook by monitoring all electronic and phone conversations between the couple.
鈥淚t has been interesting to watch their interactions because they share very similar beliefs,鈥� Mom Michelle added.
As the mother of four boys, ages nine, 14, 18, and 19, I have had plenty of girls I didn鈥檛 care for 鈥済o after鈥� one of my sons. I didn鈥檛 like it and spoke with the boys, but if it happened once they were 18, I let them decide what to do.
At some point, we must let go and trust both our parenting track record and our own child.
When my husband and I met I was slightly older than Jessa and it was my husband鈥檚 parents who didn鈥檛 approve of me. They thought his former girlfriend was 鈥渢he one鈥� for them. Happily, she wasn鈥檛 the one for my husband.
I was raised a strict Roman Catholic and didn鈥檛 date until I was 17. Then I met my husband and all bets were off. We moved in together and married all inside of three months.
Everyone was aghast on both sides of the family, but my in-laws were inconsolable. They initially refused to come to our wedding. They thought I must be pregnant. I wasn鈥檛.
When they did at last make it to the wedding, they came in black and left before the reception.
My father-in-law refused to kiss the bride and left us with the ominous words, 鈥淗ell can be fun for three months!鈥�
