Jessa (Duggar) Seewald Defends Messy House After Being Mom-Shamed

Jessa Duggar Seewald defended her photos of a messy house after she was mom-shamed by her followers on Instagram and Facebook. The 24-year-old mother of two said she wanted to show the reality of having a home with two young children.

In an Oct. 21 Facebook post, Jessa said she came up with the idea to post a photo gallery of her messy house while putting together a housecleaning to-do list. She could have waited to show off a clean house, but she didn’t want to do that.

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“Certainly people would find no fault with that… but many may find fault with themselves. I didn’t do that for a reason. Reality,” Seewald wrote. “Sometimes you find yourself with an 8-month-old who isn’t sleeping through the night, and you don’t care that your bed has spit up on it–you’re tired. Throw a towel down on it and sleep!”

Seewald explained that sometimes she didn’t clean the dishes after supper because she wanted to enjoy time with her husband after he got home from work. “There’s only one golden hour of family time before babies are tucked into bed and hubby has to start in on his college homework… and so you put off dishes until then,” she wrote.

One photo she posted particularly appalled her followers. It showed a pile of used diapers. She said that her diaper pail is “outta commission.”

“Our diaper pail is currently outta commission, and I’m awaiting a replacement. Yeah, they were stinky, but I had them bagged up and out of the house before the pic of them was even posted,” she wrote.

“I said it before, and I’ll say it again: ‘I am not trying to pit a clean house against interaction with kids.’ I believe in, and value, both,” the Counting On cast member wrote. “I really should’ve split that post into two, because it is not an either/or, but both/and.”

Jessa also wrote that she didn’t want to sacrifice time with her children to clean the house.

“The point was my heart’s goal to devote undivided time and attention to my kids– to make memories together each day, no matter what else I have on my schedule,” she wrote. “It’s all too easy for me to want to turn on Baby Einstein and get back to my project, and while that may be fine or necessary at times, it can’t replace pausing for moments here and there to give them a mama’s loving, playful, teaching, and engaging interaction.”

The controversy began on Oct. 19, when the TV personality posted an Instagram gallery of 10 photos showing her house a complete mess. Laundry was piled up on a bed, a mirror had streaks on it, toys were all over the living room floor, there was a pile of dishes in the sink and she had used diapers collecting on a dresser.

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Despite some complaints, she had plenty of defenders.

“Anyone shaming you for being a busy mom and thinking about your kids first screw them,” one person wrote. “Even me with no kids have days i just leave the dishes in the sink and have a piles of clean clothes on the floor that need to be folded and put away. i think people who shame others are insecure in their own lives and just have to make others feel bad to make themselves feel better.”

Seewald and her husband Ben have two children, one-year-old Spurgeon Elliot and eight-month-old Henry Wilberfore.